And it was wonderful. I finally feel back to my normal routine of working, exercising, and riding. This afternoon we drove out to the barn to hang out with the guys and check out Steen’s leg. He was hanging out in the indoor arena with another injured horse when we arrived. I left Robin to tend to his leg and tromped through the drifted pasture to get Bear. The gates were opened up to let them get into the low lying areas of the other pastures, so horses were everywhere and I couldn’t see Bear.
Turns out he was on the other side of the bail, out of the wind with his head absolutely buried in the middle of it. When I walked around the bail and saw him I said, “hey big Bear,” and he pulled his head out and jumped straight up before he realized it was me. Kind of funny. I’d never startled him like that.
Inside he was a little restless since Steen was getting treats and he wasn’t. But he calmed down and I got him groomed and tacked. After a brief bit of groundwork I hopped on.
He was quiet and pretty responsive. Since our last rides have been pretty bad with the feel, I had planned on really focusing on that. Particularly at the trot. We started at the walk, and he was good. He only picked up a little trot a couple times when I didn’t ask, but I was able to soft feel him back to a walk.
After we were warmed up I asked for the trot. We spent many minutes working on feel. Once I would get it three or four times in a row, I would then use the feel to bring him down to a walk. He was continually improving at both of those things. So then we went for the lope.
And the lope was awesome. Robin watched as I loped around and around with a big smile on my face. I was really able to direct him around the arena with my legs, and since things were so smooth, I felt I could work on transitions more than I have been recently. So we got some walk, trot, lope, trot, walk, lope, walk, stop, etc. Every time I asked for the lope he picked it up with ease (except once). He also gave me the biggest stop I’ve ever felt. Robin was laughing at me as I fell forward a bit. But Bear just stood there licking his lips knowing he did an excellent job.
I cooled him out for a few minutes and then called it a ride. We only rode for 30 minutes, but I swear it was much longer than that. When I hopped off I had to look at my watch multiple times, because I couldn’t really believe it. I suppose that is a sign of a good ride.
Well it feels like we are well into the new year, and I haven’t blogged yet. It felt like I made it through the holidays and was ready to get back to my normal routine, but I forgot that we were having Robin’s brother Jesse and his wife Susie visit for a long weekend. We had a fantastic time with them, but I didn’t get a whole lot of riding or blogging done.
When they planned their trip a couple months ago, we had no idea what would happen as far as weather. I kind of hoped we could all go skiing, but in many ways the 50 degree days we had were better. We got in some runs and bike rides and a great afternoon at the barn.
It was so warm we all hung out at the hitching post outside for some grooming, then we rode in the outdoor arena. Robin and I warmed the guys up a little, and then we handed them over. Jesse climbed on Steen and Susie rode Bear. At first he didn’t want to do much, but once they got moving both Susie and Bear did great. Bear is really starting to lose his reputation of being a bad ride for visitors. He was listening to her leg and rein cues, walking nice circles, stopping, and even gave her a pretty nice trot.
Jesse was having a little more trouble on Steen, but he stuck it out and made some progress. After that he hopped on Bear for a little bit and they enjoy a little trotting around the arena.
When they were done I took Bear into the arena for a little loping practice. It was warm and he was a little hot and tired, but he wasn’t sluggish at all. It also took no effort to keep him going. He just tipped right over into a super smooth lope in both directions. It was by far our best indoor lope yet, going both right and left I had no trouble keeping him on the rail. I think he is getting more and more fit, and we’re also getting more comfortable loping in that space.
The visit did make things a little busy for us, but we were also able to sneak out for a mid-week ride before the current storm storm rolled in. It was a lovely afternoon and we planned on riding on the strip. Unfortunately, Steen had a cut on his leg. He actually had it when Jesse and Susie were here, but it really didn’t look too bad. Once we were able to take time and clean it all out and explore the area, we could see it was a little bit worse than we thought. Thankfully he is not favoring it at all, but Robin thought it would be best to just clean it, wrap it, and not ride him. Probably smart.
While she took care of her patient I took Bear out to the strip for a short ride. In our recent time off he has lost some soft feel, particularly at the trot. So we did a lot of trotting with me trying to remind him how to respond to the bit. I guess he got better, but I feel like we’ll have to get back to practicing this more and more.
He was soft to the bit while we were backing, and he was especially good at backing circles. One of the bummers about the ride was that a huge portion of the strip was a little torn up by a sod cutter. And it is the exact spot that is perfect for loping. So I didn’t really think we would run, but then I decided to run him out and back on the strip. It was the first time we’d done it since last spring. We started by going away from the barn, and he picked up a beautiful lope and had no trouble holding it on the slight downhill. We dropped to a trot and then came back up. Going slightly uphill and toward the barn Bear was inclined to really dig in. He felt solid and I wasn’t worried about him, but I do like him to have a softer feel while we’re loping. So we’ll have to practice this some more. I think it will take some time, and some sessions where we really get a lot of running in. This ride I only went out and back a few times.
And then we called it a night. Now here it is almost half way through January and I’ve only managed a couple short rides. But I’m not worried, it is already way more riding than I did last January.
It was 50 degrees. We planned on riding outside but the winds were kind of outrageous, so we just rode inside. It was a pretty good ride. I was hoping for just a nice, relaxing time with my horse. This week I was tired and we didn’t get out to the barn much. I usually have a slow down with winter. Maybe that is starting to happen.
The ride was good. Bear and Steen were both warm and a bit sluggish. Bear was actually very stiff in his lower legs when we were doing some groundwork, but he seemed to loosen up pretty quickly. After I had been on for just a few minutes he was much, much livelier. When we started trotting and working on some transitions he kept telling me the next transition should be into the lope. Since he was stiff in the beginning I wanted to keep warming him up, but I guess he was good.
We started loping and it was very easy and relaxed. He was moving good and staying on the rail and not trying to get out of it at all. Robin said he had that happy Bear expression on his face. It was truly the best indoor lope on him I’ve ever had. We went for quite a few minutes. He was certainly worse going to the right, but now that we’ve got a good base of fitness going, I’ll feel better about pushing that direction more.
After the running around we worked on ‘the routine.’ We had not done this in a while, and I messed up on the first round. Then we got three pretty good ones in a row. For the first one our timing was decent, but Bear kept dropping the trot and I had to work hard to keep him going. After that he figured it out and was much better.
We rode for an hour, and that gave me 109 hours and 5 minutes for the year. Sometime last spring I noticed that if I just averaged 10 hours a month that I could get over 100. So that became my goal. Not a very big goal, but it was enough for me to really accelerate my abilities on horseback.
Here is the month to month breakdown if anyone is curious.
January 0 February 2:35 March 4:30 April 9:20 May 14:50 June 10:30 July 5:05 August 11:15 September 12:15 October 12:40 November 12:55 December 13:10
Not the most even of years. The spring was a long build up until some great riding in April and May. That is when Bear got super fit. Then there was a lull in the mid summer. Bear had a super minor injury, and it was hot. So we didn’t ride much. Things got going again at the end of the summer, and then we attended the Buck Brannaman clinic and the stuff I learned there really carried me through the year.
Next year I think my goal will be 150 hours. Not huge, by any standards, but it will be a little bit of a challenge.
Since we had all our riding gear with us, we decided to swing by the barn on our way into town. It was a warm afternoon and no one was there. The guys were both sleeping in the pasture, so I don’t think they were thrilled when we pulled them out to work.
We rode inside as we were both a little tired as well. Robin has been working on suppling up her bosal and mecate and it has made a huge difference. It probably helped with the good ride she had.
Bear, on the other hand, could have used some suppling and softness over his four day vacation. When I got on him he was his usual quiet self, but he felt like a different horse through the reins. He would flex nicely, but that was about it. Soft feel, backing, gentle turns, all those were missing. It was almost like someone with super heavy hands rode him the whole time I was gone. It was a little disappointing since we had been going so well together.
But it did give me some stuff to work through. I was tired, so it was a little difficult for me to stay patient and soft, but I did my best. It started to work, too. Over the course of our hour long ride we worked on flexing, serpentines, getting the soft feel and multiple gaits and did lots and lots of backing. For some reason this was his worst thing. Instead of tucking his head he would hold it high with his nose out. I had to patiently hold some pressure to get him to move. We got to where going straight back was decent, so then we did a lot of backing in circles and zig-zags. I was able to get some of that softness back, but it was a little hard on both of us.
Because of the heat, Bear was also just generally sluggish. So we did a little bit of loping just to liven him up and get the blood going. He was great to the left. He perked right up and followed my leg cues. To the right, stiff. Really stiff. A few times we got into some tight spots where I thought we might run into the wall. At the last second he would respond to my legs and reins and give me a sharp bend. These were by far the sharpest turns I’ve experienced at the lope. At least now I know what we’re capable of.
Robin watched these parts and she did notice that he was not moving great to the right. So he does have some stiffness somewhere. I didn’t push it, and we cooled down with some non-demanding exercises. Hopefully the light work and little bit of running will help him loosen back up.
This week is supposed to be warm. Like in the 50s warm. It is kind of nice, but I’m also wondering where my winter is at.
On Thursday afternoon my Mom took us to her huge hunter/jumper barn for a treat. The three of us were going to have an hour long, semi-private lesson. On Thoroughbreds. Going into this ride I was a little nervous. Things have been going really well for me lately, but I really only know Bear at this point. And I am not a confident enough rider to always handle different situations well. So I had no idea what to expect.
When we arrived we poked around for a bit and then found out the horses we would be riding were tacked up already. I had a dark brown guy named Chip. I’m not sure exactly how tall he was. My guess would be 16.1 or 16.2. Certainly taller than Bear, but not enormous. It took me a while to adjust the English stirrups, and I even had to get some help from the instructor after I was mounted. But in the end I was fairly comfortable in the saddle. It had a more generous cantle than I was anticipating, and the lack of horn didn’t bother me in the slightest.
We walked around for just a few minutes, but really that was just for us. The horses were warmed up. So we moved into a posting trot and stayed there for a long time. I have not really been working on my posting since we’ve been indoors (Bear’s trot is so much slower inside), but the loftiness of the Thoroughbred trot and the hunter saddle made posting feel like the most natural thing to do. And it was really a lot of fun.
The instructor would give out little pointers to all of us as we trotted around. For me these were mostly about my fingers on the reins (I like to lace my fingers in the reins when I’m softly collecting my horse, and I think the hunter/jumper school likes a firm, full hand grasping the reins) and of course my diagonals. When I’m posting outside we are rarely making tight turns, so I have spent no time thinking about diagonals. Thankfully I have been thinking a lot about where my horses feet are, so I picked up on the diagonals pretty quickly. I didn’t get any instruction about keeping my heels down or fixing bad posture, so I felt really good about that.
After maybe half an hour of moving in and out of the posting trot, we worked on the canter. Initially we tried to get them all going together, but each of us were having different problems with our horses. So we went one at a time. This was good for me because the cues for getting into the canter were a little different than what I’m used to. I was able to watch and listen as Robin and Mom had their turns.
When I was up it only took a couple of tries (mostly because I like to start by asking with less force than I think I’ll need) to get Chip into a nice canter. It was fun and easy to ride. One of the big things I learned in the lesson was about moving down from the canter to the trot. The instructor told us to collect them a little more and have a bit more pressure on the outside rein, then just move right into posting and the horse will follow. Chip was great with this (of course, I’m sure much of that was due to his excitement to stop running). It will be fun to work on this with Bear when I get back home.
So all in all, the lesson was really great. It was fun to ride with Mom in her natural environment. She was definitely the better poster of the three of us. Unfortunately, she drew the short stick when it came to horses as hers was not so keen on the canter. She was able to work through it and get a good ride, though. She is hoping next time she can ride October, the horse Robin rode. He was the most solid and speedy of the bunch.
On our way out of town we decided to hit the barn for a ride. We would be taking all our riding stuff with us to Chicago for a lesson at my Mom’s barn, so it really didn’t make any difference if we packed all that stuff or wore it.
Lately our indoor rides have been longer than we thought they would be. This has been great for getting Bear back in shape. Which I think I can say he is now in better shape than he was right before Thanksgiving.
I kept this ride very active and constantly switched in and out of all the exercises we are working on. Bear has been responding to this approach very nicely. What I kept coming back to was working on our lope. This was by far the most loping we have done since maybe sometime in the summer. I spent many rounds going in both directions, but instead of just pushing him into a lope for a while and then getting a big hard stop out of him, I would keep him going between the trot and the lope with a soft feel and a shift of my seat. He responded to these transitions really well. Although he did get a little excited at times during the trotting. Usually a few requests for a soft feel would bring him back.
Since we have been loping quite a bit I am sure that is part of the reason I had such a good ride. I think the other reason was I was back in spurs. The spurs Robin got me for my birthday were too narrow for my boot heel. Also, the shanks were pretty long. So we got a bigger spur with a slightly smaller shank, and today I wore them for the first time. I am still adjusting to them, but I was significantly more comfortable than I thought I would be. And when it came time to keep loping, it really only took the slightest bump with the spurs to remind Bear that he should keep moving out. I really only had to do that in the beginning, too. Bear is such a funny guy, often I just need to show him I mean business once and then things are great.
We left the guys out in a slightly muddy pasture to hang out over the holidays. We have been getting a lot of rides in (far more than I thought we would in December), so I’m sure they’ll enjoy their days off.
Today was the first day of my vacation, so I went to the barn this morning with Robin (she still had some work to do, but she was game for some horse time). The days and nights have both been warm lately, and that means the winter lot is a mess. I should have gone out there in muck boots, but I didn’t.
Bear was on the bale but not really eating. I was trying to convince him to come to me by starting to play ‘the game.’ It wasn’t working very well, and I had to make him move some by tossing the lead rope at his hindquarters. That worked, but he just moved to a muddier part of the pasture. I slogged to a different vantage point and continued.
Unfortunately, Bear was not interested in coming to me. I could have walked right up to him and put the halter on anytime I wanted, but since I started ‘the game,’ I kind of had to finish it. Besides, there were foot deep puddles of muck I’d have to wade through just to get to him. Robin had no trouble getting Steen to come to her. She was inside and grooming for a while before she brought me my muck boots so I could more effectively play ‘the game.’ She’s the best.
I got Bear moving around and he would think about coming to me, but he never did. I actually gave up. I’m not sure how long I played or how many times we went across the lot, but I got sick of it, and a little mad at him, too He is certainly smart enough to figure this out. So I just haltered him up and then took him to the indoor arena where I proceeded to play ‘the game’ some more. I didn’t want him thinking he got out of something.
He ran around for a few laps, stopped, and then came right to me. Thanks Bear. You could have saved us a lot of trouble if you did that half an hour ago. At least he got a lot of exercise loping around outside and inside. When I was grooming and tacking he was standing there like he does after many of our mentally exhausting rides. He actually looked a little surprised when I pulled the saddle out; he probably thought he was done.
Robin was much faster than us, so they had been riding for a little while when we got in the arena. I didn’t do much groundwork and just hopped on. He was excellent with the soft feel, and we proceeded to walk around and mix in some backs and backing circles (each time he left some excellent circular footprints in the sand).
Once warmed up we started trotting and worked on the feel, but mostly I concentrated on getting that feel and then using my seat to bring him down to a walk. We were much better at this today. After a particularly good transition I remembered what I was doing on the previous ride, getting a good change and then moving to a new exercise.
So we proceeded to work on what Robin and I have been calling ‘whirly-gigs,’ getting the horse to separate the hind end and forequarters by first stepping under with the hind and then bringing the forequarters across. A few weeks ago Bear and I were doing a pretty good job with these. And then something went wrong. When I would ask Bear to halt his front end and step under, he would sometimes do it, but he was always stepping over and giving me some super sharp turns from the forehand, too. It didn’t feel great, and it certainly wasn’t what I wanted. I decided to give them a break for a little bit and hoped that in the time off we could both figure out what wasn’t working.
Sunday night I re-watched Buck’s hackamore DVD. It was excellent to see for a second time, and I got what I hoped would be two crucial pointers (the second will come later). When initiating a whirly-gig, keep the supporting rein completely clear of the horse’s neck. Only when you stop cuing the hind end and bring the outside leg into play do you apply the supporting rein. As soon as I watched that I thought I was maybe not keeping my hands as wide as I should have. I used to ride with them much wider, but now that I’ve been improving on my leg cues I have brought them in closer, and often I just use one hand.
So today I tried the whirly-gigs again, but I was conscious to keep my hands far apart. It worked. Mostly. Sometimes I would either mess up or Bear would get a little confused and try to hop through with his front end, but mostly we did an excellent job. I got a few good ones and was poised to keep going when Robin reminded me I should give it a break and then get back to it. Thanks, honey. That is exactly when I need to hear such advice.
With all our quiet and precision based exercises going well, we decided to move into the lope. Robin loped Steen first. It was her first time doing it in the hackamore. They both looked pretty darn good. Steen was cruising without a worry in his head, and Robin was completely off the reins and just using her body to guide him around the arena. It was cool.
Bear and I, well, we were nothing like that. Just like in lopes past, it was easy for me to get the first few strides out of him, and then he would drop into the jackhammer trot and make things really difficult on me. I got some timely kicks and was able to keep him going, but it was pretty short lived. The rough trot is extremely frustrating, and it is hard for me to ride and give the kicks when I need to. And then I was annoyed at the little Pomeranian hanging out in the arena. I felt I had to keep an eye on her and keep Bear going. I didn’t really, but it was an extra distraction I didn’t need.
Robin volunteered to get her out of the arena. That changed everything. Not the absence of the dog, really, but both her and Steen were out of the arena, too. So Bear didn’t have his magnet spots. The first time I asked him to lope after they left we were able to run for a while. I stopped him, trotted some, and then got him going again. I had to stay on him to keep him going, but it was nothing like our previous attempts.
We ended up going both directions, multiple times. It was by far our best loping inside yet. Robin snapped a few photos of us. The light wasn’t great, so they are a little blurry, but they are better than no photos at all.
We finally got to lope long enough that we were both able to relax.
And I could always lean back and get a hard stop from him, though here I was caught off guard by the hard stop and drifted forward a bit.
It ended up being a long workout for Bear, and he was pretty tired at the end. But he is looking and feeling much better. Both moving around in the winter lot and under saddle he was great. He is finally starting to get in shape a little. He’s still got plenty of Bear-gut, but when you are behind him it doesn’t protrude nearly as much as it used to.
I need one. Titles seem to be the most difficult thing for me. Even when I have bad rides, it is harder to come up with a title than anything else.
Today was a great day. The barn was super crowded because Duke was there to trim feet and we were having a little end of the year potluck. Quite a few people beat us there, so we just went with what has become our normal farrier day routine: quickly tack up and get a ride in before it is our turn.
It was forcasted to be even warmer today than yesterday. And though it was earlier in the day, the sun was already heating us up. Robin and I both rode in less clothes than usual. Since we didn’t know how long we would ride, we stayed close and just rode on the strip. Except for one other boarder who was doing a few exercises with her cute Icelandic Pony, we had the area to ourselves.
I was curious to see how Bear would be, as we had a less than great ride yesterday. I did go armed with a plan. This morning we watched Buck’s second video on making a bridle horse. This one focused on the hackamore, but it also had some excellent pointers for just riding. One thing that I was again surprised by (and I’ve known this for a while, but that doesn’t mean it is easy to do) was how much Buck goes from one exercise to another. He doesn’t dwell very long. He works on something until he gets a small change and then, boom, onto something else. Of course this really forces the horse to think, but for a relative newbie like myself, it is extremely taxing on the rider, too.
And as such, it is easy to not follow through on. The first 20+ minutes of our ride were very mediocre. I was trying my best to be relaxed, soft, and keep things varied. Sometimes I was successful, but often I wasn’t, and then I would find myself doing the same exercise over and over again. This doesn’t help Bear at all. Generally, he really knows his stuff, so he can get bored. He doesn’t care if I need to practice something, even if I’m being nice about it. He just checks out a little more.
So when my frustration was building a little, I took a break. I just sat there and snapped a few photos of Robin and periodically gave Bear some pets. Robin was having an excellent day in the hackamore. The video this morning also helped her out quite a bit. She’s got some more shots on her blog, but I got this nice one of them backing up after a pretty great stop.
Then Bear and I got back to work. And we were doing much, much better. We worked on some relaxed trotting and getting a soft feel, backing, backing in circles, and serpentines. I have been getting better at these since I figured out that Bear’s head needs to be elevated a little bit so his poll is just above his withers. When I get that, I can feel that his shoulders are opened up and he is much more balanced. But I have always struggled to keep him moving through the serpentine nicely. I asked Robin for some help, and she pointed out that I wasn’t bending him quite enough. I probably let that slip when I started focusing on head height. So she watched us do quite a few serpentines and pointed out the good ones and the bad ones (like when he would stop walking forward and just turn in funky circles), and also called out when I should give him relief or demand more.
It was a really big help. Both Bear and I were in higher spirits. Robin had such a great ride that she ended early, but I wanted to keep going.
I was worried for a second that Bear would be pissed that they were leaving, but he just watched them walk away and got right back to work with me. I kept our momentum going and was very good about stopping after I got a change. He gave me some wonderful collection at the trot.
We backed in circles quite a bit. It was fun to see Buck back his horse in a zig-zag. I often worry about backing too much, but as long as you give a timely release, it shouldn’t be a big deal.
All in all we ended up having a really fun ride. He was happy with the challenges, so I’ll have to work extra hard to keep things more exciting for both of us.
After the ride he was super relaxed. I did a little more grooming and some stretches while he caught a quick snooze. Then it was time for the trim. He is always great if I am able to get a ride in before hand (he’s just good if I don’t get the ride in). Duke said his feet are looking great, and that is always nice to hear.
At least for the past two days. The middle of the week was down right yucky. I ended up giving Bear three days off because of the weather, and just general tireds on my part. In fact, it was a little hard to get to the barn Friday afternoon because the week felt so long and tiresome, but we were glad we did.
We found the guys aimlessly wandering the pasture as the bales were gone. This was great for Bear. He has been eating too much, and I was worried I would find him even bigger after his three days off. Instead he was in a good mood and looking trimmer.
We had an easy ride in the arena with lots of trotting. For almost 20 minutes (not completely in a row) all we did was trot around with me asking for a soft feel. He was awesome at it. He would give it to me almost instantly, and since he was so tuned in to me he was listening to my legs and seat. I could speed him up or slow him down with my thighs. It was great.
Then Robin asked if we wanted to lope. I said sure. I did, really. It is just that right now it takes some effort. But the only way to get back to it is to keep him going. So I got him into the lope. He picked it up very quickly. It was so smooth and relaxed I was all prepared to just go with the flow. But then after two strides he dropped it. This became a pattern.
So I got into a rhythm of asking him for the lope, riding out his sloppy transitions in and out of the lope and doing my best to keep balanced so I could kick him when necessary (sounds harsh, but trust me, it wasn’t). At one point I kicked at the perfect time and he just went into a nice easy lope. From then on things got easier.
All in all we loped longer than we did last time. He is not good at staying on the rail, and while I’m getting better at using my legs to direct him at this speed, I’ve got a lot of work to do. I also figured this was maybe the fourth or fifth time I had loped him inside. Bear doesn’t love it inside, so I’m hoping things get better with time.
Today the temps were supposed to be even warmer than yesterday. Robin and I ran some errands in the morning and then got to the barn just after lunch to hit the peak heat of the day. We weren’t the only ones with that idea. Within in a 20 minute period Robin and I and three other boarders arrived. Plus the barn owner and the women doing chores were both there.
Thankfully we had already planned on riding outside, so we didn’t have to vie for any arena time. We quickly tacked up and then headed out to the big pasture. We hadn’t ridden out there in over a month, so I was excited to get back there. The sun was shining and felt very warm. There was a slight breeze, but it never felt cool out there.
Things started out great. Bear was walking out and giving me the soft feel regularly. After a long warm up we made our way to the hilltop, and things deteriorated from there. Bear was edgy, stiff, and not paying close attention to me. He would shy away at his own shadow. His stops and backs were awful (very un-Bear). And at the trot he was very fast and rough. I rubbed a bit of a sore spot on the inside of my right knee from riding it out. The new saddle has been great, but I guess it isn’t great enough to allow me to ride poorly through some really stiff and fast trots.
We did work through things some. The trotting got better in time. Bear was unbelievably gassy and bloaty since they did get new bails last night, so he was pooping like a machine. I’m sure that wasn’t helping things. In between trotting sessions we would work on our short serpentines (these got to be pretty good) and soft feels. In the end, we got a good workout.
I was getting tired of riding when Robin asked if I wanted to go in. There were some hunters in the distance, and being on a hilltop not too far away from woods and open prairie grasses made us a little uncomfortable. We walked back and discovered we had the arena to ourselves, so we rode a little more. Robin worked on some loping and I checked in with our trot. Much better inside. Serpentines were good, too.
I do wonder if he was a little touchy because of our last ride on that hilltop. We did ride in the pasture about a month ago, but the last ride on the hilltop was over two months ago when I fell off. He definitely got a little scared in that fall. I had never seen him take off so hard before. He was galloping up and down steep hills that he doesn’t even really like to walk on. So maybe we just need a little time up there.
Trying to redeem himself after a highly mediocre ride.
I rode with the camera in my pocket the whole time, but we only thought to use it at the very end. I guess that is what happens on difficult rides.
Today was warm and Robin was swamped with work, so I went out to the barn on my own. Bear was doing his best to bury his head in the bale and get all the good stuff. He must have been at it for a while, because he pooped four times today. Lately he has been pooping less, which I think is good, but today was just like the old days.
The place was quiet initially. Bear was clean, and I groomed and tacked while he half dozed. Yesterday I just hopped on without any groundwork, so today I made sure to go through a few things. This is when I noticed how sluggish he was. He was paying attention to me, but it was hard to get any life in him. Something about the way he was moving left me inclined to not really get after him.
So I just climbed on instead. We warmed up with some walking and then proceeded to spend almost the whole ride trotting. This is when I became sure he was fatigued. He was listening to me and all my cues, but his body had no spring in it. Still, I knew I wasn’t going to hurt him by keeping him moving at a trot. And it was an easy trot.
While moving around the arena I mostly let him trot the pace he wanted to. Occasionally I would open up my legs and get a little more life into him. He responded to that. Then I would be nice and ask for a soft feel and let him go back to a slower trot.
Since he was so tired, he was also very willing to slow down or stop at anytime. I took that opportunity to work on transitions. Mostly trot to walk transitions. I’m trying really hard to get it so that I can ask for a soft feel and then change the motion of my hips from ‘trot’ to ‘walk.’ I think it has been three rides that we’ve been working on this. The first one was surprisingly good. Then it got bad towards the end. The second ride was just not that great at any time. Today we had a few bad ones and a few good ones. I do think they are almost all my fault. I’m struggling with finding the difference in going from a trot rhythm to a walk rhythm. And it is hard for me to not get frustrated since I know we have done it before, and also when I don’t quite get it right, Bear is inclined to trot faster. That is definitely not ideal.
Today we had an excellent trot to walk transition and I decided to praise him lavishly and let him rest. He seemed pleased with himself; I patted his head and he licked his lips. I decided to make that the end of our ride. I walked him around just another minute, but didn’t demand anything more of him.
While I was untacking he didn’t move a single foot. This is not totally uncommon. He does like post ride naps. But his head was so low, and then when I went to grab his supplement he still didn’t budge. Usually he creeps forward and tries to get his face closer to the feed. Not today. He stood stock still and just moved his head a little forward.
I’ll definitely give him some rest tomorrow. Maybe even two days.
