With three horses under our care now, there is a good chance we will be changing things up a lot. Today was the first real day with Laredo, and we decided Robin would spend most of it working with him. So in order to give Bear a little more rest, I opted to ride Steen.
But first we found all the horses scattered about the pasture. Bear and Laredo were grazing pretty close to one another, and as we walked up they got even closer.
I don’t see Bear engaging in the mutual grooming a lot. He often looks annoyed when such things happen. But not today. Perhaps he is taking a liking to the young guy.
Of course, as we got closer to them Laredo drifted off to visit another horse. We had to spend a few minutes convincing him he should hangout with us, but all in all, catching a young horse for the first time in a 13+ acre pasture was not at all difficult.
We decided to work in the indoor arena since the footing is good and it had the potential for the least amount of distractions. I climbed on Steen and had the usual ‘this feels totally different than my horse’ thoughts. They were actually bigger than I anticipated. I know Steen feels different, and I was sure I was ready for it. But I guess not. I also realized I hadn’t ridden him since early October. That is quite a while. Perhaps the longest I’ve gone since we have had him.
Overall he was good for me, but just like thinking I was ready for the different feel of Steen, I was also anticipating a slightly better ride than we had. I guess it will just take us a little time to get to know one another again. It is probably good for both of us.
I think the main differences and things I need to work on are just understanding how Steen moves and how my legs affect him. He was inclined to pick up the trot on me, just like he has been doing to other non-Robin riders. We worked around that, and he was very soft when I’d ask him to come down. We did a lot of walking and trotting in figure-eights and circles. Overall I was probably using a lot more leg than he is used to, and I think this confused him a little bit. His response was to either over or under-turn, so I was trying hard to adjust my leg placement and pressure in response to this.
We were going better at the end of the ride. Our transitions were smooth and our bends got more consistent, but neither one of us were as relaxed as we usually are. We’ll have to see how things go in the future.
Oh, and we rode in the hackamore. I thought it would be great practice for me to feel another horse in the hackamore, but everything was so different, I didn’t even really have time to think about the fact that I was using the hackamore. I think I did a good job keeping the reins light and loose, because he never braced up on me. Hopefully once I’m more used to the hackamore on Bear and the way Steen moves I will be able to learn more from riding Steen in the hackamore.
I know we only had to wait a few days once we made an offer, but it really felt like much longer before Laredo finally arrived. Waiting just never gets easier, so we went out to the barn early and just decided to ride.
Last week, during one of my many sessions of poking around the web for horse stuff, I came across a short article about using contoured, cut-out pads to help sore backed horses. Robin was kind enough to let me try her new pad on Bear. The fit seemed quite good, but you never know what you can tell from one ride.
Out on the strip, though, I was already thinking about things differently. Bear was moving great. His stride was long and fluid, he would stop on a dime (something he often does, but not when he’s sore), and our bends were a thing of beauty. I never had to coax him into a tighter serpentine. In fact, late in the ride I was working on doing figure-eights with my hands firmly on the horn, and with only my legs I was able to get tight circles like I only used to get with reins (and with a fair bit of encouragement in those reins).
So maybe the pad really did help. I am trying to not be too excited, as I know I’ve posted many times about things that I hoped would help only to find out that they helped a little bit. Or they only helped temporarily. So we are definitely in the wait and see stage. But the other piece of evidence we have is that Robin’s ride was not nearly as great as mine.
It is clear that the light rides and extra days off are also helping Bear. I could certainly feel that today, but we also have a ways to go. During the last few weeks, when things were perhaps at their most uncomfortable for Bear, he started to brace up periodically during our rides. Now I can see that this has become something of a habit, as during this ride he would occasionally get very stiff when picking up a trot or when I would ask him to yield to one side. He would then get a little surprised shortly after the moment, perhaps realizing that there wasn’t any discomfort. I worked hard during these moments to stay as light and positive as possible. So hopefully if we can keep resting him and I can keep riding well, we can work through this.
We ended the ride just a few minutes before the breeder arrived with Laredo (we’ve definitely decided on the name, and we think it is a good fit for him). He backed out of the trailer like a pro. We could see immediately that since we last saw him, he had shed out a little more and also put on a few pounds. The recent rains have probably been good for the grasses and consequently good for his tummy.
We introduced him to Bear and Steen in the airlock before we turned him out with the other horses. They all seemed to get a long great. Laredo has grown up in a herd, so I think he’ll fit in quite well with ours.
After we introduced him to the rest of the herd, we spent some time watching them all. Laredo was happy to play with all the others, but he wasn’t pushy about it. He would also go back and forth between playing and grazing, which seems to be a good indicator that he was already settling in. The only other horses I’ve seen introduced to our herd have been older. I think it can take them longer to readjust than a youngster.
In some ways Steen was the funniest. He would play hard with Laredo, and then take a break to come hangout with us. Hopefully that will help the young guy learn that hanging out with us is pretty cool.
After driving back into town Sunday afternoon, we went out to the barn for a relaxing ride. Well, we were hoping it would be a relaxing ride, but I don’t think it was for any of us. Robin and I were just plain tired, and Bear was extremely bothered by the bugs. It was hot and muggy without much wind, so it made for the buggiest day of the year.
For some reason bugs just like Bear. When we are grooming and tacking, Bear easily has 3 times as many bugs on him as Steen does. It clearly makes it hard for him to concentrate, and that in turn makes it hard for me to concentrate.
We rode out on the strip, and I was hoping we could just keep moving to keep the bug annoyance down, but that didn’t work too well. Bear was perhaps feeling a little bit better. It can get so hard to tell, but I feel certain that he was no worse than he’s been in the last week or so.
But since none of us were having a great time, we decided to just call it a ride after thirty minutes. That was probably the shortest ride I’ve done in a year.
For one solid week Bear got a lot of rest with only a couple of super light rides. I continued to give him lots of back massages and hind end stretches during this time. I was hopeful he would be feeling at least somewhat better when we went out on Wednesday, but I was also prepared to take it easy for another week.
When we walked out in the pasture they were grazing in the south end, which is one of their favorite spots. Steen looked up at us as soon as we opened the arena door. I’ve never seen him notice us from so far away before. He took a few more bites and then started trotting up to meet us. The only problem is the fence to the middle pasture was in the way, so he got a little stuck. Then Bear noticed us and ran up to meet Steen. I was lucky enough to get the rest on video.
So I guess that answers the question of how good Bear was feeling. I only hoped that all his frolicking didn’t bother his back some more. But overall he seemed good, and his whole demeanor was different. He was more relaxed, more friendly, softer on the line, and just seemed happy. He also shed out almost all the last remnants of his winter coat during the last rain storm, so he was very sleek.
We rode out on the strip, and I could feel his body had much more energy than the past few rides. He was still a bit stiff at times, but overall he was moving very nicely. I only ended up riding 10 minutes. I just wanted to see how he was going, and then I let Meryl spend some time with him. I wanted her to see how much better he would be for her than he was last summer. He gave her a pretty hard time during their first ride.
Wednesday, though, he was great. Very quiet and attentive. And when Meryl hopped on he gave me the cutest look. I guess he was just wondering if all this was OK. I assured him it was.
The girls had a fun time riding around the strip, working on the routine, and just hanging out. It was fun for me to watch my horse move, particularly since he is feeling quite a bit better.
Leaning a bit more than is ideal in the turns, but he’s bending much better.
I’ve been feeling bad these past few weeks that he’s been so sore. He is such a great horse when he’s feeling good. Hopefully by just riding him 2 or 3 times a week he will be able to stay in nice shape but not get over-worked. And the rest of the time I can spend working with our new guy. Since he’s only three it will probably be best to not over-work him, either. This should all make for a really great summer of riding.
We’ve had a nice week with Meryl visiting. She has had some good barn time on Steen and a little on Bear, too. While we were giving Bear some rest, we also did a little horse shopping.
Like many horse people, I periodically look at what is for sale in the area. For a couple of years I have seen nice looking Quarter Horses from a breeder not too far away from us. Until now I’ve never had a reason to contact them, but on Tuesday we went out to see the farm.
They have a really cool operation with 3 studs, 8 brood mares, and a little over a dozen horses between the ages of 1 and 4. We went out to look at a couple of started and unstarted three year olds. We spent almost an hour hanging out with all the young ones in the pasture. They are extremely friendly and well socialized, and almost all were quite soft moving off of pressure.
Based on the info we had, we were most interested in a red dun gelding, and as we played around with the herd, it became apparent that he was the best horse for what we were looking for. He’s about 14.2, but will most likely add an inch or two over the next year. He’s got a gorgeous head, straight legs, a nice flat back, and big, correct feet. In terms of his personality, Robin described him as in between Steen and Bear. He’s got Steen’s softness and energy, but he’s also got Bear’s intelligence and disinclination towards over-reacting. I’m sure our assessment will change as we get to know him, though.
After lots of thinking and talking things over, we made an offer and worked out a deal. He should be delivered early next week, and we can’t wait.
The name they’ve been using for him, Major, is a shortened version of his registered name, but we are kicking around the idea of calling him Laredo.
Tuesday saw some of the nicest weather we’ve had in weeks. I definitely got a little spoiled with the early spring sunshine in March, but then we had quite a few days of colder, windier, and wetter weather. It felt like we hadn’t even tacked the horses up outside in a while.
But Tuesday the sun was shining, the wind was light, and it was just about too warm. It felt great. Except maybe for Bear. He has been suffering a little from a sore back. I wish I could say it was a new soreness, but truth be told, he’s been mildly sore in the back since we’ve had him. I don’t tend to blog about it too much because it isn’t very fun to dwell on these kinds of things. Also, it does come and go, and with regular time off, stretching, and massage it has been manageable.
At least it has been manageable from my perspective. I think the reality is that Bear has been uncomfortable for a few weeks. Or since we really started ramping up our rides. A lot of time we would ride 2 to 4 times a week for about an hour with the occasional short indoor ride. Now we’ve been consistently getting out 3 to 5 times a week, and we rarely ride for an hour any more. Many of our rides approach two hours.
I will be giving him some rest, but it is a difficult situation to handle. He certainly isn’t lame, and he generally seems to enjoy the rides. But I have nagging injuries that bother me, and I can only imagine what they’ll feel like when I’m Bear’s age. For a little while I will just have to proceed slowly and make sure I don’t push him past where he is comfortable.
I am hopeful this plan will work well for Bear. Unfortunately it won’t work for me. I’ve ended many of our rides wishing that we could keep going. I’ve just got so much to learn and practice right now. Robin and I have talked off and on about the various horses would could own over the next many decades. But now for the first time we are considering a third horse for the near future.
When we walked out into the pasture this morning the guys were in the same far, low corner they were in Friday when they came up to us. But when we got close to them today they moved off. Well, not they, it was clearly Bear who moved the others over the creek drainage and behind a hill.
Bear leading them off behind a hill.
I climbed up the other side of the hill and saw Bear eating. Steen didn’t know what was going on and came right up to me. I gave him some pets, sent him off in Robin’s direction, and then went to get my horse. When I walked down the backside of the hill, Bear rather quickly turned and trotted around the hill. When I got back up top he gave me a toss of his head, kicked up his heels, and then spurred the whole herd into a gallop to get out of there. Perhaps I pushed him a little too hard yesterday by making him walk all the way to the gate.
Oh well. At least when they all gallop somewhere it is right back to the winter lot where we wanted to go anyways. When we got up there I moved Bear a little bit and he trotted right over to Robin. That was funny. They have been getting friendlier and friendlier these past many months. For awhile Bear would always give Robin a somewhat questioning look. When I had trouble with Bear, Robin always stepped in as assessor and disciplinarian. Now it would seem when Bear has trouble with me he goes up to Robin. When I looked at him, though, he came right up to me with a somewhat relieved and sheepish look on his face.
It was another cool morning, and there was a fairly strong wind out of the north. It had also rained in the night, so things were slippery. Despite the sun starting to come out and warm things up, we opted to ride inside again. We did open the big door, and that made it really comfortable.
Bear was great in the beginning. He was listening to all my requests and staying on the rail like a champ. Then when I asked him to stay just off the rail, he would do that, too. Our trots were relaxed and everything seemed good. I asked him for a lope and he threw his head down and started hopping around. That was definitely not as good. I worked to calm him down and he continued to dance around for a little while.
We sat for a minute and he seemed fine. So we walked around, did some serpentines, walked some more, then trotted, and after we had gone a lap it was Bear who wanted to hop into the lope, so I let him. I figured it was a good sign if it was his idea. And it was. So maybe he had a kink to work out. Probably from the kicking and galloping up and down hills to get away from me.
When things got going nicely again I decided to get back to transitions. I had so much fun working on them yesterday that I thought I could build on that. I didn’t want to do things in quite as prescribed a manner, so I figured we would move freely about the arena and ride in and out of the walk, trot and every once in a while add in a lope. Robin decided to stay a half arena’s length behind and do the same thing.
It started off nicely, but once we got into the faster stuff it was nearly impossible for me to keep Bear from moving either from the trot to the lope, or from the walk to the trot. I was bouncing around a lot and using the reins much more than I wanted to. Something had to change.
It was Robin who suggested the perfect exercise. She thought I could possibly get some good results if I trotted him in figure-eights at one end of the arena, then when he was moving in a calm and collected manner I could ask for the lope on the rail and do a full lap. After that I would return to the figure-eight pattern as needed.
This was one of the best exercises I’ve ever done. We worked on it for over 25 minutes, and I loved every second of it. In the figure-eights Bear was inclined to be sluggish on the left turns and drop his shoulder in very tight right turns. I tried to counter both of these, but after awhile I saw he was really still dictating the size of the circles. So I switched it up and forced him to do tight left circles and wider right circles. That worked wonderfully.
When I would get a few good ones in a row I would either stop and let him rest (for about as long as he was inclined to lick his lips, so maybe 10 seconds) or move him into a lope. The lopes were awesome. A few times I ended up going more than a lap because we had such a great rhythm and I loved feeling my hips move with him.
The downward transitions worked well because I would ask him to move right back into trotting figure-eights. I did have one where I thought we could move down nicely while staying on the rail, not possible. So we just kept it at going back to the figure-eights. Another day we’ll get back to standard transitions.
Later on Robin and Steen worked on simple lead changes, and Bear and I worked on some quieter stuff, moving on his hind end, backing circles, and things like that. All was going well, so I decided to ride over to one of the big cones and pick it up. It was quite challenging in that the top of the cone was just below my stirrup, so I had to reach down pretty far. Bear does not mind when I move around in the saddle, but he wasn’t totally thrilled with the cone. When I picked it up he shied to the side a bit and then collected himself. But the cone was really heavy and awkward, so when I tried to change my grip Bear really started moving off. I ended up dropping the cone as he scooted all the way to the other side of the arena. It was interesting to feel him move this way, and probably really good for me.
But of course it meant I had to pick the cone up again. It took a few tries for me to sidepass and back him into position. I picked the cone up and tried to get a good grip on it. Bear danced sideways and I lightly checked him with my rein. He calmed down and looked while I moved the cone around. I didn’t know what to do next so Robin suggested I brush his shoulder with it. A good idea, but not what Bear had in mind. So we danced around a little more and then he calmed down. I brushed the shoulder again and he was better. Then I figured we could just walk a few steps with the cone and I would put it down. When Bear saw the cone was still following him he took off again. I dropped it once more and it tipped over. So there was no more picking it up off the ground from under-saddle. We walked around it a few times, and then I worked with it from the ground.
I had never worked to get a horse used to something “scary” before. It was quite interesting. I tried hard to stay in the sweet spot between too much pressure and too much relief. After a short while I was rubbing him with the cone.
The expressions on Bear’s face were priceless.
Finally we got to a spot where I could really put the cone anywhere, and I could get him to move his feet with the cone on top of him.
It was a great way to end the ride, and we’ll have to work on things like this more often. We didn’t even revisit me riding with the cone, so we’ve certainly got things to work up to.
Yesterday the guys came to us in the pasture from pretty far away. Steen even trotted the last bit. Bear actually lost some momentum and had another bite of grass. But overall it was a good effort. This morning, however, he showed no inclination to come over to us. They were eating in another far corner of the pasture, he looked at me multiple times as I walked up, and then he went right back to eating.
So when I got up to him I pushed him off a little, figuring I would do what I normally do when he doesn’t come to me, which is make him move until he wants to come. Today he walked off up the hill, then he gave me a look like he was considering coming to me, but I pushed just a bit more. He kept walking along nice and easily. He kept walking so nicely I just walked in right behind him. We went all the way around the middle pasture, and then on up to the gate. He gave me a few confused (and perhaps mildly uncomfortable) looks, but for the most part he was just happy to be walking in.
We rode out on the strip. It started out cool and breezy, but very quickly the sun came out and it got kinda warm and sticky. Bear was good in the beginning, but then he stopped being good. He didn’t seem to be paying a lot of attention, and he was constantly over-reacting to my cues. Not in an awful way, just things like when I’d ask him to turn a little bit, he would turn and then keep on turning. If I wanted him to stop turning he would turn the other way. That kind of frustrating stuff.
But to be honest, I was tired and woke up with a headache that morning, so I was certainly not being the best rider. Robin suggested we work on one of our exercises and I said I would rather do walk/trot transitions. She said she has been neglecting those since she has been loping a ton, so we decided to work on them together. We just set up a nice area to circle around and designated two spots for transitions. Very simple.
We worked on it for over 20 minutes, and honestly, I could have kept going. It was perfect. I was able to really think about my seat, legs, and hands, and Bear knew exactly what his job was. This isn’t to say they were all perfect, cuz they weren’t, but overall things went very well.
We ended the ride with some easy walking down the strip and back. Bear was much more with me after all the transition work. I just have to remember what I blogged about a few months ago, when things go wrong, simplify. Today was a perfect example of things not going well and then focusing on a very simple exercise to make it better. Worked like a charm.
Friday we rode inside again. It was another one of those blustery and chilly days that would have been fine to ride outside, but when you’ve got the empty indoor arena right there, why not?
And it was a fun ride. Bear was super soft from the beginning. He had these wonderfully collected backs and would go in either direction with no problem. The indoor still had some barrels set up in the middle and we backed quite a few nice circles around them.
Of course we had our things to work on, too. Staying on the rail going left was again a problem. Particularly in one spot. I think what was happening was that we both knew it was a bad spot, so I was harder on him with my legs and Bear was ready for me to be hard on him. Robin suggested a lighter but steadier correction with only the rein. I had been so focused on less rein and more leg that I think I was overdoing it. A few laps of working with the rein changed things up very nicely.
Then we moved into some trotting, which was awesome. He was extremely relaxed and had that happy Bear face going on. The interesting thing about the trot was how much I could vary our speed without any use of the reins. I’ve known this in principal, but if Bear wasn’t really relaxed it wouldn’t always work. Yesterday it happened somewhat accidentally. Initially the trot was so slow I was sitting it, then I started posting a little, and before I knew it we were flying around the arena in a very smooth and fast trot. The only other times we’ve trotted that fast were due to agitation. At one point Bear was feeling frisky and wanted to move into the lope and I just asked for a soft feel so he’d stay in the trot. He did, but thinking of the lope momentarily put us into the jack hammer trot. It was amazing to feel how different that was from the smooth trotting we had just been doing. But after only a few strides we got back with one another and things felt great again.
We were having so much fun that I wanted to do a little loping. When we got to the barn I was really tired (typical end of the week tiredness), and I didn’t think I’d ride very long or fast, but things were going so well I guess it woke me up. So we started cruising around at the lope, and it was really great. I was able to keep the reins so loose they were flapping around. Bear was happy to stay back on his haunches and listen to my legs. I even spent a little time directing him into smaller and then larger circles. It was a fun challenge for both of us. We kept it up long enough that he was getting a little sweaty and tired, but he never dropped the gait. I love when he gets like this because I know I can just shift my seat and he’ll stop hard and fast. Sure enough he did. I was so ready to stick the stop, too, but he slammed into the ground so hard my butt still popped up off the saddle. At least I didn’t tip forward like I sometimes do. I guess I just need to keep getting used to these hard stops.
Today Bear came to me. It is definitely a milestone, but there is still more to work on. He was not very far away, and he wasn’t eating. He was also potentially bothered by the flies. Nevertheless, when I was walking up he saw me, and when I got to the gate he was already walking over to greet me. It felt pretty nice.
It was a gorgeous day and we rode in the middle pasture. I had planned on continuing to get used to riding with a much looser rein, but I didn’t really have any concrete plans. I was feeling very tired and sluggish after work, so I was just kind of going with the flow.
Initially it didn’t start out so well. Bear was antsy and jumpy and not looking comfortable. Robin has a new pad and has been playing around with getting her saddle to rest on Steen’s back a little more evenly. Today she decided to go without her thinline and I though I might try the same. I was actually surprised how much more I could feel his back through the saddle. I thought that was a good thing, but Bear was not a fan. I went back for the extra pad and Bear’s demeanor changed immediately. So I guess I will stick with it.
But despite going back to the extra padding, Bear remained exceptionally responsive today. More responsive than I’ve ever felt him. If I moved my legs in any way he was searching for the right answer. This is certainly a good thing, except for the fact that I tend to make quite a few mistakes while riding. So at times it was leading to some rather interesting patterns and ‘circles.’ At one point I was heading these responses off by getting on the reins too much. I thought I was making my corrections slowly and carefully in a way that Bear would understand, but Robin pointed out that though the reins appeared and felt loose, I was more or less leading him around by the slobber straps. Which he was totally responding to, although he wasn’t understanding it or liking it very much.
So I often had to slow things down so neither one of us would get upset by things. That definitely worked, and I have got to keep it in mind. But it is so hard to slow your approach down and stop things if they aren’t going well. Hopefully the more we do it the more of a habit it will become.
I got to practice this multiple times today when we were working on our lope. We worked off a very loose rein except when Bear would drop his shoulder and stop bending. I’d try to correct first with my legs. This often worked, but many times Bear would over-correct, which led to some difficult moments in the saddle. Other times I would use a single, sharp correction on the bit to encourage him to stay back and bend some more. Today he was exceptionally soft to the bit, just like he was to my legs.
Bringing him up and back with the inside rein.
Coming off that last turn, back on our haunches and with a loose(r) rein.
But overall, he was not loping easily. It is possible that he has gotten used to loping with some pressure on the bit. A lot of times he was moving his head around as if he was searching for some contact. I know a lot of the loping pictures I have show me with more contact than I would like. I certainly wasn’t riding with a ton, but there was probably enough there that Bear was getting used to relying on it. And who knows what kind of habits he got used to before me.
Us loping last June in the same spot. My reins are not tight, but the slobber straps are definitely pulled back.
We cooled down with some more circles and figure eights and various patterns. Even after our eventful loping he was able to calm right down and get back to listening to my legs. I tried to keep my reins on the saddle horn and we were able to ride like that about 80 percent of the time. Hopefully we can work to get that even more consistent.
Robin thinks Bear’s recent responsiveness is because he is just now realizing that when I do something, I do it for a reason and he needs to pay attention. I joke all the time that he feels like a four year old. But again, the way he was searching for answers and kicking his heels up made me think I was riding a super young horse.
All four feet off the ground. There were more than a few difficult moments in today’s ride.
Despite all our antics, the little pasture herd couldn’t have cared less. And I love that my horse comes right back down and is eager to hang out with me.
