I’m So Hot!!

March 7, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

Today got up into the 70s. It felt nice to have less clothes on going to the barn. And I really enjoyed the sun on my forearms. Bear didn’t seem as thrilled as I was. He was hot, tired, and probably a little hungry. We also rode outside, and that seemed to lead to some distractions.

I should also admit that I was tired. After a few minutes of lackluster riding I realized I should focus some more, and then hopefully Bear would be more inclined to do the same. It kind of worked. We did a lot of short serpentines, and those got him paying more attention. I could see he was both more physically flexible and mentally flexible after the exercise. So I tried to build on that by walking around and working on simple soft-feels and stops. I like to think of Bear as a champion stopper, but not today.

During one of our walks down the strip he got spooked by something. I’m not sure what. Maybe a bag or a cornstalk (there was a ton of wind). One minute we were lazily walking away from the barn and the next he had loaded all his muscles with tension and shot out to the right. I brought him down with ease. Or maybe he brought himself down, it was hard to tell. But it was another good moment for me practicing my riding. I felt ready for him to bolt back for the barn. I’m not sure if I actually would have been ready, but the thought was already in my mind and body. I also think this was the biggest spook I’ve had in my new saddle. It felt quite good. My butt was in there the whole time.

The spook did nothing to wake Bear up and make him more alert. Too bad. We just went back to working on the feel and stops, and then added in some trotting as well. In the beginning his trot felt awful. Like he was going to collapse underneath me. I think he was acting, because after a few minutes he was working better and his head was up and his ears were forward.

I know the change of seasons is hard on me, and I’m sure it is the same for the horses, so I’m just trying to get out there consistently and be as patient as I can.

Back to Work

Brian

March 5, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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I was pretty happy with my start to the year, but then things kind of fell apart. A little loss of motivation, some crappy weather, and of course, we found Elsa. She ended up taking quite a bit of time. Not time I’m sorry about, we had some wonderful long walks and runs. I really enjoyed our time together.

Unfortunately, we were not able to keep her. Robin is pretty allergic to dogs and working from home full time was not helping that at all. I kind of had it easy. I would work all day, and then come home to a very excited and loving Elsa, and we would just go out and play and have fun.

We ended up finding her a really nice home. They have land, horses, another Border Collie, and the owner even said she might consider adding some sheep. She’s had sheep in the past for her dogs, and now that she will have two again, the sheep could be worth it. In short, I’m a little jealous of her new set up. I think she’ll be really happy.

After two weeks we finally got out to see the guys. I think Bear was happy to hang out. He was good for grooming and tacking up, and he was sniffing me much more than he normally does.

The ride was just OK, but I wasn’t expecting much. Bear has lost quite a bit of weight. His haunches are thinner than they’ve been since we got him. He’s still got a bit of a Bear-gut, but it is also smaller. And the recent bad weather has left the mud lot in a sorry state, so the guys are hardly moving at all. This made for a sluggish and tight Bear.

But we kept things easy. We did a really long and slow warm up. When working towards the right there were a few moments where Bear kept hopping into a trot with a big head toss. With some patience on my part, we got over it. I’m pretty sure he was super tight somewhere in his right side. We didn’t have any problems to the left. We worked on lots of bending, flexing, and serpentines and that seemed to open him up.

Then we went into some trotting, and, and usual, Bear was very keen to lope. I held him in for a bit, but then I decided to let him go. He gave me a super smooth upward transition, then a very relaxed cruise around the arena, and then either let his exuberance shine through or discovered another tight spot as he gave some pretty big head tosses and a hop. Nothing difficult, but I pushed him along for another half lap and then brought him back down. He was tired after that.

I’m really hoping I can get back into a barn rhythm again. I’m usually motivated in the spring, and it would be great to get Bear into really good shape when he’s already a little thin.

Least Exciting Ride Ever

Brian

February 19, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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I’ve been tired lately. Some of it is the new pup. Some of it is work. And some of it is probably just picking up on Robin’s tiredness from those same two things. We kind of had to force ourselves out to the barn this afternoon. But we were glad we did.

For the past couple of weeks Steen has been coming to meet Robin every we go out to the winter lot. I gotta say, I’ve been a little jealous of this. But last ride (which was Wednesday, and I didn’t blog about it even though it was a good ride), and today Bear came to me from off the bale. He didn’t come to meet me at the gate, but it was still pretty great. I’ll have to make sure we can keep this good thing going.

We rode out on the strip. The sun was bright and warm, but the air was somewhat cool. Both the horses were as tired and lazy as we were. I’m not exactly sure why. It wasn’t that warm.

After a few lengths of walking up and down the strip I noticed Bear was breathing a little hard. Much faster than usual. And he was snorting and kind of coughing, too. I wondered if he had a cold or something. I decided not to push things too much. But as I was talking to Robin about it, she thought it could be from the bales. In the late winter it is common for horses to get a dry cough from sticking their heads in the bale for hours on end. Bear is a champion eater, so there is a good chance this is what he’s got. And sure enough when I looked at the herd they all had their heads stuffed into holes they had eaten into the bale.

We kept things slow and played the mirror game for a while. It was a fun way to pass the time and work on some non-demanding stops and turnarounds. Both the guys did great. After that I thought I’d see what happened if we trotted out for a little bit. He was tired and blowing a little hard, but I think the activity was good for his lungs.

But in between all of that we just did a lot of sitting around. Sometimes it feels so good to just sit on your horse with the sun shining down on you. Bear never minds when we do this, either.

Simple Lead Changes

Brian

February 10, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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This has been a cold and tiring week. Also Robin has been swamped at work. When she is busy it makes me feel busier, too. But I did manage to get out for a ride this afternoon even though I was still tired. It was great, as no one else was there.

Also, the arena just got dragged and groomed. It has a little too much sand in it, so the sand tends to really pile up along the edges and in the corners. After a while it starts to feel small and cramped in there. I was excited to try out the more consistent footing.

It did make things kind of deep everywhere, but spatially it felt better. Particularly when we started loping. We did a nice long warm up, and then I quietly pushed him into a lope. He was really smooth and happy to hug the rail. We made quite a few laps and I was particularly surprised at how much longer the straightaways felt.

After a few laps we were settling in and I remembered that I want to start working on simple lead changes. So after coming around the next bend I kept Bear turning and guided him into the middle of the arena, brought him down to a trot, and then sent him off while cuing for a right lead.

I wish I could say we did it really nicely. We can, afterall, get really smooth downward and upward transitions. But when you add in the fact that I’m turning him, bringing him down, and then setting up for another lope, I wasn’t quite able to do it how it appeared in my head. Everything was slower and choppier, but we did ultimately get it. We kept going and every lap and a half I’d guide him to the middle and ask for a lead change. We got a really good one going off to the right and then I let him rest.

He was super tired. I guess all the deep sand and transitions made things a little tough on him. I gave him a while to recover (during which we had some not so great walking, trotting, and stopping) before doing another round of lead change work. This time we started off to the right for a few laps before working into the changes. Again, not as good as I would have hoped, but I think they got better a little bit faster. They were certainly fun, but we’ve got a ton of work to do. I think I remember Buck saying he does thousands of simple lead changes before even attempting a flying lead change. Well, today we got maybe a dozen.

To Hackamore, or Not To Hackamore?

Brian

February 8, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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A few days ago Robin and I were watching a training video by Mike Bridges. It was not the most exciting of videos, but it did offer a lot of insightful commentary on bits and the variety of heads and mouths on horses. At one point he talked about how horses with thicker lips might not be quite as soft to the snaffle bit as horses with thin lips. But then when you get those horses in another set up, like the hackamore or spade, they can be exceptionally soft. Hearing that I was pretty sure Bear had thick lips. Not because he isn’t soft, but because he is kind of thick everywhere.

And sure enough, he does. The next day we got out for a ride and I looked at a few other horses in the pasture and closely compared Bear’s lips to Steen’s. Bears are quite a bit bigger and thicker. Interesting. So I thought, maybe I’ll spend a few days in the hackamore and see how things go. I might just surprise myself.

The start was slow. He was good when I’d ask for a soft feel, but lateral flexion as I’d come to know it was gone. It took a few minutes of baby-step flexes to even start to get it back. We’d walk around easily and not think about our headgear, and then we’d work on stops and backs and flexes.

Thankfully each time I asked for a stop or a flex it got better. That continued throughout the whole ride. Also, he stayed good with the soft feel. I think have the pressure right on the nose makes a lot of sense to them.

After some good warming up I decided to try the lope. And this is where the old Bear came out. He could tell something was different, so he tried his hardest to get out of loping. It is funny that half the time he loves it, but if he thinks he might not have to do it, then he makes it hard on all of us. For this ride he chose to lope in the teeniest, tiniest circles possible. I actually didn’t even know he could lope circles like that. I was wishing I had my spurs on so I could more forcefully push him out, but I didn’t. So we just continued to lope small circles with me attempting to push him out into larger circles. He tried to stop a few times, but there was no way I was allowing that. Finally he got the idea and gave me some nice laps around the arena. And that was more or less where we ended the ride.

The next day we went out and again I used the hackamore. The start was slow, but not as slow as the day before. We were certainly making progress. Over the course of the ride we did all our normal stuff and even got some pretty nice loping in both directions.

But things weren’t all great. I just couldn’t send clear messages all the time. And the weirdest mix ups would happen. We’d be doing something like walking along the rail and I would bend him into a circle with maybe a 10 or 15 foot diameter, and halfway around the circle he would just veer in the other direction. Not like he was pissed and trying to show me where he wanted to go (I know what that feels like), but more like he was just given a strong signal to go that way.

Of course, things like this can only mean that I am not a great hackamore operator. And the only way to get better is to use it. But wow can it be frustrating. I don’t think I’ll use it a ton just yet, but maybe over the next couple of months I’ll do some hackamore weeks and see what kind of progress we can make.

When Things Go Wrong, Simplify

Brian

February 1, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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These little words of wisdom come from Dan John. Dan is one of my favorite people to read for advice on working out and getting fitter. The reason I love his stuff is because he breaks it down into very digestible chunks and also his advice applies just as directly to life, relationships, and work as it does exercise. Buck talks about the same stuff. Get better with horses, and you’ll get better with life, he says. For me I have to look at it from both angles.

Now, nothing has gone “wrong” really. It is just the saying, but what haven’t been working well for me in months are whirly-gigs. Walking out with your horse, then halting the front end by disengaging the hind and then halting the hind end and bring the front end over. If you do it right it looks like a very cool dance step and you go off walking in the same direction you were originally going.

In the middle of the fall I was able to do these quite regularly with Bear. As with most things, we were better doing them to the left than the right (I’m still trying to figure out whose fault this imbalance is, and I kind of think we are both to blame). But then things went wrong. Bear would start whipping around rather than disengaging. Then he started turning super fast, tight circles. I couldn’t figure out what was going on, so I more or less stopped doing them.

A few rides ago I started slowing down and breaking up the whole movement so that I could think about it. I’d try a whirly-gig, and when that didn’t work, I would just work on disengaging the hind end a few times. And that would be it. Another ride I would try a whirly-gig, again it wouldn’t work so I would disengage the hind end, pet him for a good job, and then ask him to bring the front over. And that was it. I found ways to simplify the movement, then I slowly built things back up. If we ran into a problem, I just went back to whatever step we were comfortable with.

Then yesterday we just started getting the whirly-gigs. Now they weren’t all pretty or ideal, but each time I asked for one we were able to get some clear steps in the right direction. I didn’t drill him on this, I just did one every 5 minutes or so and showed him how excited I was when we got it.

This would have been exciting enough, but really he whole ride was awesome. I’m not sure if it was because the bails were low, the temperature was warm, Bear was tired from many rides in a row, or if things were just clicking because I was working on keeping them simple, but I’m inclined to think it was the latter.

And I did do a teeny bit of loping to ensure that we get some every ride. And we had some big strides with the loping, too. Robin and I were running together and I had a little bit of hard time keeping Bear off Steen’s butt. So I would apply some medium pressure to the reins to check his speed.

He responded by giving me the biggest break at the poll I’ve ever seen or felt. It was quite amazing. His pace would slow a tad, but his body filled up with so much energy I thought we were going to leap past Steen. I guess that is what true collection is all about. It happened a few more times when we got close to them, but then I asked Robin to watch us after she was done loping and he again gave me the monster soft-feel even when we didn’t have to worry about running into anything.

With so much great stuff happening in the ride we kept it short and sweet. It was the kind of ride where it felt dangerous to push things, like that would make everything fall apart. And it has left me with a lot of excitement to get back out there and keep practicing. But today we’re all going to get a day off.

Sixty

Brian

January 31, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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Today is the second to last day of January and it was 60 degrees. That is nearly twice what the average temps are. Very odd. But not unwelcome. If we had a ton of snow, I would have been disappointed. But we had just enough snow that the warm temps melted it all and turned the ground soft and mushy. So even though it was gorgeous out, we still rode inside.

Bear and Steen were a little bit off when we pulled them out of the pasture. There is a new horse out there. Well, an old horse, really. He used to live in this pasture a couple years ago, but I’m not sure he ever met Bear. Anyways, he is a large (like 17 plus hand, large) quarter horse and is quite dominant. So the guys were slightly agitated. Steen came right up to us, as he does when he is uncomfortable in some way.

We tacked outside to enjoy the late afternoon sun, but then headed in for the ride. It was cooling in the dusk anyways, so we didn’t miss too much prime sun time. In the arena Bear was good. He is still loose and moving nicely, but he was a little distracted.

Despite this, we had a really great ride. I don’t know how to talk about all the things I worked on without it sounding like a list, so I’ll just hit the highlights. Fairly early in the ride I was going through some transitions and since he was backing so, so nicely, I decided to work on backing with energy and then push him right into a trot. He got it on the first try, and each one got better and better.

Once we were thoroughly warmed up we moved on to loping some nice circles with Robin and Steen doing the same. Bear was super smooth and happy. I think these past few times I have done enough running to curb his enthusiasm in asking me to lope, because today he was never offering the lope. A few times he got lazy and dropped it, but it really took no effort on my part to keep him going. Loping to the right he was a little tight, but he relaxed into it. He was more inclined to drop it in this direction, but again, picking it up was no problem.

Robin then moved on to another exercise, but I kind of wanted to keep working with the lope. So for the first time I would just ask for really short sections of loping. Like 1/4 of the arena. I’d get a few strides and then soft feel him down to the trot or walk. He was great going left, so we switched it up and spent more time working to the right. This was much harder on him. Quite a few times he was resistant to picking it up, and he would give me a stiff neck and veer into the center of the arena. This was not a big deal for me since I had my spurs on. I just had to time things right and I could get him going. We only did about 5 or 6 transitions to the right and I started to notice they were getting better. Finally he gave me a really good one and then I let him rest.

This is something I am getting better at lately, recognizing a good effort and rewarding that with a brief rest and then moving onto something else. I did this a few times today (with whirly-gigs, loping, transitions, and tight right circles at the trot), and I think it really contributed to our good ride.

The one funny moment of the ride was a fairly dramatic spook from Bear. There were some kind of noises outside the arena. Steen gave a big move and then Bear lept into a pretty lofty and energetic run. It is funny how many things can go through your head when your horse starts running, but I wasn’t very worried. My seat felt stable and relaxed and I just kept the reins in my hands and held onto the horn. He brought himself down to a stop and stood around a little sheepishly. It was just another one of those things that is good for my horsemanship.

All week is supposed to be warm and dry. So hopefully we can log quite a few rides. Maybe it will even dry up enough that we can get out into the fields without worrying about tearing them up.

Good Rest

Brian

January 30, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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After two days off, Bear was happy to see me this morning. He came over to say hi and followed me with more energy than he often does. I was hoping this meant he was feeling better. I let him loose to roll and wander around the indoor, but he wasn’t really interested in doing much. So I had to coerce him to move. I hardly pushed him at all, but he took the excuse to run around, tossing his head back and forth and throwing in a few high, twisted kicks. It was all very playful, and he even moved into a super relaxed lope while calmly watching me. This was definitely a good sign.

He came right down and was happy to stand for grooming and tacking. In the arena he was quiet and attentive. Despite his earlier playfulness, I still took a long time warming him up. We walked around working on soft feels, backing and disengaging the hind and fore quarters. After about 10 minutes of that I was ready to move on to faster things, but I had told myself I was going to give him 15 solid minutes of walking to warmup. Then I remembered I wanted to introduce haunches in at the walk. So for the next few laps when we would hit the straight-aways I would ask for collection and then use my outside leg to move his haunches off the track towards the middle of the arena but keep him moving forward. We did this quite slowly, and he responded very well to the exercise. I think it helped in getting him more mentally and physically limber. He liked the challenge of thinking about what I was asking, and having to reach forward and in with his hind legs seemed really good for him.

After that thorough warm up we moved on to our other stuff. The soft feel was coming much more regularly at the trot, and his downward transitions were wonderful. I don’t think I had a problem with any of them. The only not quite so great part of the ride was his energy level. He was moving good and paying attention, but he didn’t have that light, sprightly feel he often gets. But really, it wasn’t that bad.

I did get him moving nicely in the lope, just to see if he was still feeling good. And I was hoping it would wake him up more and get him a little excited. Just like a few rides ago, Robin and I loped in the arena together. This one was a little more involved than last time as Steen took a moment to get going and then once he was running he veered towards us. So there we were loping just off of Steen’s hind end. Bear was getting excited running so close to Steen, but it was easy to keep him listening to me. I briefly transitioned into a walk (which he did a great job with) and then got us loping again so that we had some good space between us. We got quite a few laps in, and he felt great.

We took a break to cool down, but Bear was not all that excited with the loping so I didn’t really need to bring him down. We proceeded to run to the right just to keep things even. Again we ran with Steen. Bear was giving me a very steady and relaxed lope (much better than the last two times to the right), but he wasn’t too keen on staying on the rail. I didn’t fight it much at first, but when Robin finished her round of loping I kept Bear going just a bit longer so that I could concentrate on getting a nice circle on the rail. It totally worked.

I cooled him out with some simple walk, trot work with a few whirly-gigs thrown in there. He was starting to get tired. I was still interested in working and was asking him for some roll backs and urging him to take off at the trot. They were so so, but then he gave me a really good one. I decided to end the ride on that note. It is supposed to be 50 degrees tomorrow, and I don’t want a tired or sore horse.

He was falling asleep while I untacked him and stretched out his hind legs. And when I turned him out into the pasture he really wanted to hang around for some pets. It was a great day at the barn.

Discretion

Brian

January 27, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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It is a difficult thing to have. Today I deadlifted after not doing it for a little while. I was excited to get back to it, as it is one of my favorite lifts. But I had to take it easy to ensure that I could do more in the not too distant future. I think I got the intensity just right.

Bear, it would seem, did not exercise the same discretion yesterday. It appears that his exuberance at the lope has cost him a little bit in terms of mobility. Today he was stiff. And very slow to warm up. It does not help that the winter lot resembles a lumpy ice skating rink, so I don’t think he is moving much on his own. But still, he was probably pushing himself a little harder than he should have yesterday. He is lucky that I was not planning on pushing him at all. I’m happy that I only loped him for a few minutes at most.

When the lot has bad footing we often let the guys roll and romp around a little.

He is getting to be an old guy (17 in a few months), and both of us can easily forget this. In the last two weeks I think I only rode him once. None of my winter rides have been hard, but I do need to ensure that I get more frequent, non-demanding rides in so that he can keep feeling good. That seems to be what works best.

So today we spent a long time walking around, backing up, and doing some whirly-gigs. When I thought he was as warmed up as he could be from walking, we moved into the trot. It was not an energetic trot. We spent most of the time working on our transitions in and out of the gait. I didn’t let him trot for too long, and I let him pick the pace. I was happy that a few times he moved out a little bit more.

The transition work was really good. Most of the time when we were moving from the walk up to the trot I could just open my legs a little bit and gather some energy into my thighs and butt. It is hard to explain. It felt almost like flexing my muscles, but I was also somewhat loose at the same time. Only twice did I have to close my legs to encourage him to move out. Every other time he gracefully moved into an easy trot when I would shift my weight and open my legs. It was quite cool.

And that was about it for the ride. We finished with a lot of stretching, and I rubbed down both of his hind legs. He seemed to enjoy that. When I put him back out into the pasture I thought he was moving better than when I brought him in, so that is something. There is a chance of snow tomorrow so I will probably use that as an excuse to read, drink tea, and make a nice dinner, so Bear can get some rest. But if I’m really lucky I’ll get to ski.

Stand and Lope

Brian

January 26, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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Those are Bear’s two favorite gaits. It is funny as I tend to forget about the second one when we haven’t been practicing it. Like in the late fall after I had taken a tumble and we weren’t riding is spaces that were great for practicing the lope.

And though I have not been riding a ton lately, since late December I’ve been doing a good job of working the lope into every ride. In the beginning there were some difficulties. In fact, on a couple occasions Bear’s reaction to picking up the lope would make you think it was his least favorite gait. Not so. Once he gets into a little bit of shape, he can’t not lope.

Last Wednesday I went out for a solo-ride that I never blogged about. It was great, there was not another person at the barn the whole time I was there, and I had a wonderful time. But when Robin asked about the ride, I said it was not that great. Really, it was just different. Bear kept jumping into the lope. I’ve experienced a number of different times where we will be trotting and then he will show me that he would prefer to lope by continuing to trot with his hind end but throw in a few teeny hops with the front end. It is rather funny. But on this ride he was jumping into the lope from the walk. That was new. It took me a few minutes to get him really listening to me again.

Of course, he still wanted to lope even after we worked on a lot of other things. So after a few good rounds of transitions, we loped. And we loped, and loped, and loped. He wanted to stop a couple times, but I just gave him a little encouragement with my hips and kept on running. He was loving it. I think it was our most relaxed lope yet. And by the time we stopped he just stood there blowing and licking his lips as if he was thinking, ‘finally we got some good running in.’

Then we had a week off with some weird weather. Now it is getting nicer and Robin and I are making a push to get into a riding habit again. Still, I was a little tired and planned to have an easy ride. Bear was in a super relaxed mood and paying very close attention to me, which was great. I even thought he missed me.

But while we were working on things at the trot, again he was telling me he wanted to run. I hadn’t even decided on whether or not I wanted to work on that today. We had enough to polish up at the walk and trot. But he kept insisting. So finally I just rocked my hips in an encouraging way when he was feeling goey, and he picked up the smoothest lope I’ve ever felt. I thought last week was good. No. This was the best. I had never felt a transition like that before. Robin saw it and was equally amazed.

After a little while of running we transitioned down to a walk and again Bear was super pleased with himself. We worked on a few steering exercises at the walk and I was about to ask for a lope on the other lead when Steen and Robin started running. I got out of the way to let them go, but then I slotted in a little behind them and we were able to both lope together. We’d never done that indoors before. It worked perfectly, even in our smaller arena. And the horses were extremely relaxed.

It was really the perfect ride to get us going again.