Hill Walking

October 9, 2010

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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The weather continues to be perfect in this region of the US, and Robin and I went out to the barn hoping for a quiet ride through the fields. The barn was empty when we arrived, which is always a good sign. In the pasture the guys were working hard to get at the last of the grass. Steen saw us from a ways off and walked right over. It was the fourth or fifth day in a row that he’s done that.

Bear on the other hand looked up, and then kept eating. He was more than happy to see me when I got up to him, but he was not about to walk over. I guess that is the difference between two and a half years of partnership. Or one of the differences at least.

Since we were thinking of heading out and about I put a saddle on. And it felt good to be in the saddle after a couple days of bareback. Bear was fine during our warmup and more than happy to walk through a few circles on the strip.

Out in the fields he was a tad antsy, though. There was a silo nearby that was getting pumped full of grain, and the loud sounds were not making the guys happy. They both kept looking sharply in that direction as we walked by. Then the field started to slope downhill and before I knew it Bear was bolting off down the grade and away from the noise. This surprised me more than a little bit. I got him under control without much problem, but he was still pretty keyed up. I’ve gotten used to him settling down rather quickly after such antics, so this left me a little keyed up.

I tried to relax as the four of us strolled through the soybean field. It is full of big rolling hills, so it was really nice. As I took deep, calming breaths I kept hoping Bear would do the same, but didn’t. In the grand scheme of horse behaviors he was pretty darn relaxed, but I’ve just gotten so used to a super relaxed horse that I didn’t know what to think.

We decided to just keep walking our big loops. We knew we weren’t doing anything that should really upset him, so we just kept an eye on him. He would get better at times, but then again he had a small bolt on another downhill section.

After a little more walking we determined he was tight in the hips. This is not a huge surprise as he has been tight in the hips before. As we continued our easy walking we worked at keeping things as stress free as possible. This is finally when Bear started to settle down. On one of the last downhill sections he started taking little, slow, quiet steps. He knew that is what I was asking him to do. I know it felt better for him physically, and I think he was also eager to please me. He got a lot of “good boy”s and scratches after that one.

We finished the day with some relaxed grazing on the strip. I took this time to also stretch out Bear’s legs. He was definitely tight in the hind end, but he truly appreciated me slowly pulling his legs out behind him. Robin said he would stop grazing, lift his head up, and just relax into the stretch. We went through a few rounds of that. I’ll have to remember to keep it up in the future, but I’m pretty sure tomorrow I’ll just give him a nice day off in the pasture.

The Good Seat

October 8, 2010

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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That’s what I had today. Of course, Bear didn’t bolt or buck or run off or do anything quite like that. But he wasn’t on his best behavior, either. He’d often express his desire to go in a direction different than the one I picked, his starts and stops were slightly unpredictable, and he would occasionally turn in a rough and hasty manner or jump into a brief trot.

And I sat it all rather comfortably. Without a saddle. I had the same light pad setup as yesterday, but from the moment I got on it felt significantly better. Even the mounting itself was better. Last time my leg pushed the pad up in an uncomfortable way for Bear, so today I was conscious of the possibility of that happening again. As a result my first mount attempt didn’t have enough umph in it. I got halfway up and petered out. Bear didn’t mind in the slightest. The next leap was big and smooth and I slid up with no problem. Again, Bear didn’t move.

But as good as my seat felt, it wasn’t that great of a ride. Bear was just off. He wasn’t paying great attention to me, and he was not enjoying the ride. Shortly after I came up with a few exercises to keep us going, Robin said that he almost looked physically uncomfortable. So I got off to examine the pads and just give him a break.

Nothing stood out to me as causing a problem, so I exchanged his bridle for a rope halter and long line and walked out into the soybean field. We did some light groundwork, and he was actually quite responsive. Much more responsive than he was during our brief, pre-ride groundwork.

We then moved on to some trotting on the line and disengages, and this is where some interesting reactions came up. Like most times, going left was no big deal for him. But going right was another story. There were many bucks, slide outs, and snorty, choppy lopes. We are still unsure if he is physically uncomfortable with turning right (this seems increasingly unlikely given the calm, collected, and rather tight right turns I’ve been getting under saddle) or if he has a psychological issue with turning right. I’ve seen some small bucks on the line during right turns before, but I’ve also seen some pretty calm right turn work. This time he was a little off during the ride, and my guess is that he could sense I was not thrilled with him. So I want to think that he was nervous and defensive and a little scared to go right.

But I have no idea (and Robin doesn’t either, when she worked with Bear on the line he was giving her the same response). I’ve only had Bear for about six weeks now, and we clearly have a lot to learn about one another. The good news is that we get along great, and despite the few minutes of excitement, Bear didn’t have any problems calming down and coming to me for pets and praise. We’ll just have to keep going slow and spending lots of time hanging out together.

Bareback Outside

October 7, 2010

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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After a few cold nights and cool days we have moved on to some rather surprisingly warm fall weather. Today was close to 80, though it is amazing how different such temps feel in October than they do in July or August. They’re never bad in the summer, but they do pack a whole lot more punch than they do in October.

Today the warmth allowed us to be super comfortable in t-shirts, but the guys were sweating a little in their pre-winter coats. Both Bear and Steen are getting quite a bit darker as their downy little hairs come in. I’ll be curious to see how thick Bear’s coat really gets once we hit actual winter temps.

The ride itself was fun and easy. Bear and I have really been focusing on doing things at the walk. We’re just in no rush (why should we be?), and I think he really appreciates me taking my time. So today we decided to ride outside bareback. I did use our bareback pad, though. And I also put a thin pad underneath that. The combo was perfect. It felt super comfy, but I also had great feel and contact with Bear.

The mounting was a little funny. This was only my second un-assisted bareback mount. Since we were outside I thought he might be a bit more distracted and inclined to move about. I don’t think he really was, though. However, when I jumped aboard my leg got caught on the back of the bareback pad and pulled it forward. He didn’t like that much and decided to quickly walk around and swivel his hindquarters a bit. As soon as I secured my seat he settled right down.

And that was probably the most exciting aspect of the ride. We worked on our usual twists and turns and had no problems. Bear performed everything quite nicely, but when I wasn’t asking anything of him he was a little distracted by Heather longing Tommy out in the soy bean field. Not a big deal really.

I imagine over the next many weeks I’ll continue to practice my bareback riding. I can already tell that it has helped my seat some, and I can only imagine what it will do for me once we start moving around a little quicker.

A Horsey Weekend

October 4, 2010

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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Again the weather was beautiful. The night times had frost warnings, but I don’t think we ever got quite below freezing. The days were sunny and warmed up in the high 50s on Saturday and into the 60s on Sunday. We rode both days.

Saturday was a surprisingly busy day at the barn. We actually woke up early and got a decent start on the day, but so did some others. Two boarders were heading to a show (and trying to load Stella, who we’re pretty sure had never been loaded before), the farrier came to fix a shoe, and the vet was there to help two other boarders with a skin condition that sometimes bothers the horses during wet weather. Oh, and the farmers were knocking down all the corn in the area, so there were some big horse-eating machines out there in the fields.

Bear took it all in stride and wasn’t bothered by a thing. Steen on the other hand was a little wound up. Robin had a long, hard ride with him on Friday, and he has been feeling so good that he just wants to go sometimes. I think all the commotion added to that desire to go.

So while Robin worked on getting Steen to calm down a bit and pay attention to her, Bear and I had a wonderful time refining our cone work on the strip. For the past couple of weeks we’ve really been working on flexing to the snaffle bit. He has gotten a lot better at it, but in that work I’ve kind of neglected the old fashion neck reining that he knows. So I consciously worked on that a bit more. The combination of a little direct reining (when needed) and the neck reining seems to work very well for him. We also did a little pre- and post-ride groundwork. All the stuff we fumbled through on Friday was even better on Saturday.

Sunday was almost the opposite of Saturday. The barn was empty, and the guys were good. Steen was especially well behaved. Bear was slightly distracted and wanted to hang out with Steen while we worked on the strip, but he was still good.

After a lot of strip work we decided to head out for a ride around the recently mowed soy bean fields. The guys seemed happy about it. Bear was walking energetically and checking everything out. It had been awhile since we last did some exploring, and I think he might have missed it. Steen stayed super calm, though. At times he was almost falling asleep.

In general, such relaxation is a good thing, but Steen is easily spookable. And sure enough, right when he was at his most relaxed he got spooked by something in the trees to our left. I was behind Robin and Steen at the time, so I got a great view of Steen dropping way down, pausing for just a split second to load all his muscles and tendons, and then springing out away from the trees.

I didn’t get to watch much more than that because Bear was also watching Steen, and he decided to turn and run off as well. His action was fast, but not as fast or as powerful as our last spook. I did end up dropping my right stirrup, but I was able to keep him in a calm lope (our first, actually) up one of the soy bean hills. Eventually we stopped and in a matter of seconds Bear was back to his usual calm self. We all calmly walked back to the barn and had no more issues. Such spooks are never a great thing, but at least they let me work on my reflexes and continue to build confidence.

Bear and the Bots

October 2, 2010

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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Wednesday I went out to ride with Robin and Steen. Things were nice, but Bear was a little bit off. He was not thrilled to be riding. He was just spacey. To get him out of it we did some easy stuff, then we did some thinking stuff, then we just did some plain old work, but none of it really worked.

I guess it was just an off day. But I also noticed that he had some stuff all over his legs. He’s actually had it for a couple of weeks now, but it was a lot worse this time. Robin thought they were little bugs called bots, and a simple google search confirmed this.

So maybe the bugs had something to do with him feeling odd. Or maybe he just felt odd for some other reason. I didn’t push him much, and now I’m working hard to get ride off the microscopic eggs attached to his legs. Today we did some of that while he grazed in the airlock. The nights have been cool, but the afternoons get warm and today the flies were happy to be out and bothering Bear. But at least he didn’t mind me picking at his legs.

After the slow start, we went out to the strip to do some groundwork. We focused mainly on backing and coming. He got better at both. We mixed in some flexing, trotting on the line, and disengaging the hindquarters. He doesn’t really get that last one. He’ll do it nicely indoors when I need to shuffle him around something, but in a big open space he sees no need to disengage. We’ll have to keep practicing.

The groundwork was good, though, because I could tell Bear was more responsive under saddle today. His woahs, backs, flexes, and starts were all better than they usually are. We worked on all those in between a couple of cones that I finally remembered to bring out to the strip. I’m not sure if they helped Bear, but they certainly gave me something to focus on.

After the ride we just hung out awhile. I couldn’t believe that no one else was at the barn as it was a perfect sunny, warm, windless early fall day. So Bear and I enjoyed the time to ourselves. He’s getting more and more curious about the things I do, like changing my shoes and getting drinks of water. He just wants to be a part of it. It’s really nice; he’s starting feel very much like my horse. Oh, and I finally got him to eat some apple core, though he might have just been trying to emulate Steen’s enthusiasm for the treat.

Grazing and Grooming

September 28, 2010

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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And a little riding afterwards, too. When Robin and I pulled Bear and Steen out of the pasture both the guys were quite ravenous. Saturday had been a chilly and wet day, plus the grasses just aren’t coming up like they do in the middle of the summer.

Despite it being a Sunny Sunday afternoon with no wind and temps in the mid 60s, the barn was empty. So we took our time and just slowly groomed them while they grazed on the long grass in the airlock.

After the slow start we went out to the strip. Bear was a little tired and sluggish at first, but he is bending to his right side really well. We even did some tight corkscrewing in that direction, and he never showed any discomfort. From there we moved on to trotting. e is having more and more fun with the trot and getting increasingly relaxed. We finished off with a few more simple circle exercises and called it a day.

I rewarded Bear for the good ride with a brand new fly-mask. It is a nice, supple mask with a forelock hole and no animal prints. He seemed to like it just fine.

More Bareback

September 24, 2010

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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Work has been exceptionally busy lately, and I came home with a tingle in my throat and a small desire to put my feet up and read a book. After a brief snack, a cup of tea, and a chat with Robin, I changed clothes (into my brand new pair of real riding jeans!) and we went out to the barn.

With both of us feeling a little tired and a stiff south wind whipping across the fields, we thought about maybe riding inside. Heather had just watered the arena, and it was empty, so that made the decision easy. And to keep things even easier, we both went bareback.

After a few practice flexes I decided to see if I could leap onto Bear without any aids. He is not a tall horse by any stretch of the imagination, so I knew it was physically possible, but I didn’t know how he would feel about me doing it. Plus the sand in the arena is super deep (too deep, really), and that wasn’t going to help my hops. I did a few jumps near him and leaned on him a bunch to make sure he was ready, and then I went for it.

And I almost made it. I’m pretty sure I would have made it, but Bear wasn’t totally certain what he should do with himself so he started to walk off. I aborted that attempt and vigorously rewarded Bear for doing a mostly good job. Then I did another false jump or two and went for it again. This time I slid aboard rather smoothly, and Bear didn’t budge an inch.

During the ride Bear was OK. He was pretty interested in Steen, so things were kind of hit or miss as far as his concentration went. But I had great luck introducing some super gentle cues when asking for him to back, and I also thought I saw some improvement in his right circles. We made a lot of righthand circles of varying sizes, and he moved through them without the jerkiness he exhibited in the past few rides.

The really exciting thing is that I’ve had Bear for four weeks now, and look at the difference in his body.

Bear after our first ride.

 

Four weeks later and still sporting the leopard print, though he’s got a new one on the way.

 

It is really a striking difference. He has gotten more muscled pretty much everywhere; hindquarters, forequarters, legs, and neck. His mane has gotten longer, too. His tail is about the same, but that is only because we gave it a little trim in order to coax it to keep growing and fill out. And he’s still got a decent belly on him.

All these changes have brought on other changes, too. He is friendlier, he walks faster, and I would guess that he is also feeling better. It will be fun to watch his progress over the next many months as he continues to get in better shape.

Consistancy and Improvement

September 20, 2010

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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Years ago I remember reading an article about training for cycling in which an exercise physiologist said that a person is always gaining or losing fitness, they are never static. The reality, of course, is that a person can maintain a certain level of fitness for a little while. But it really is only just a little while. A very short moment in time. I’ve come to think that a horse’s level of refinement is somewhat similar. They are always gaining or losing refinement within their training.

Today Bear and I rode on the strip again. Robin and Steen kept us company, but they did their own thing. Bear and I worked on our super relaxing walking routine of woahs, circles, spirals, and figure-eights. It was hot and sunny (a whole 25 degrees warmer than yesterday), and Bear was a little lethargic. But he was still improving with the exercises.

After a very thorough warm-up, I decided to work on some long, fenceline trotting. He perked right up and even seemed to enjoy it. His trot is big and floaty, and I’m still learning how to ride it comfortably, but he was more than willing to check his speed against some light contact from the snaffle. In fact, he hasn’t shown a single moment of discomfort in the mouth/head area since we switched bits.

Once we had gotten hot and sweaty from some trotting we went back to some simple circles to cool down. Robin and Steen had already ended their ride, so I chatted with Robin while Bear and I circled around those two. He was energetic and extremely responsive to the pattern and the small cues I was giving him through the reins and my sitbones.

The only downside to the ride was the slight lethargy in the middle, but it really wasn’t a problem at all. And after the ride we worked on some leg stretches to help loosen up Bear. He seemed to take to them pretty well. His hind is a tad tight, but I think he almost enjoyed the stretches. I’ll have to continue lightly doing them and see how they go.

Lessons on the Strip

September 19, 2010

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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After yesterday’s successful ride where Robin coached me through a few simple exercises, we decided to do more of the same. It was an even cooler and wetter day, and Bear was even further out in the pasture than he usually is. Everything else, though, was great.

Once inside, Bear was great with his feet. A lot of this improvement is no doubt him getting used to me, but he is also getting more flexible, too (despite the tightness when he turns right). Today he lifted his feet before I would even ask for them. And he’d patiently hold them up while I cleaned them out and then fumbled to put apple cider vinegar on them to keep the thrush at bay.

Out on the strip again, we started with some ground work. Robin did this part. She is far better than I am at asking horses to do things that they don’t fully understand. Bear was pretty good for her, but he was often looking over at me. He was also visibly more relaxed when I took over and climbed on. I hope he will be equally as relaxed with Robin at some point, but I have to admit it is a pretty nice feeling when your horse likes you best.

Up on his back I just followed the fence and worked on the woahs. Only a few were so so, most were quite amazing. He would often stop on just the word and a slight raising of the reins, no pressure on his mouth.

From there we did big circles in both directions and then moved to doing spiraling circles down to a point in the center and then spiraling back out to the big circle. He was shockingly good at this on his left turns. But on the right turns, it was a tad too much. His circles were more like unequal pentagons, and he would try to get to the center too quickly because he knew he’d get a rest there. So I aborted that plan and just went back to larger circles on the right side. That worked Ok.

All in all it was a relaxing and non-dramatic ride, though Bear did have two little inexplicable spooks when he got too close to Robin at the center of the circle. They were good for my seat, and he always settled right back down.

No Falls, No Bucks

September 18, 2010

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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That’s right, no bucks. On Thursday there was a buck, and I was able to stay on. So now I can say I’ve ridden a bucking horse.

It happened in the indoor arena. It was just Bear and I. We had done our usual warmup of lots of walking and easy circles, stops, and flexes (still working on the snaffle). Then the plan was to cruise at the trot for awhile. I figured it would be a nice way to really get to know Bear’s trot and see how he is inclined to move.

The cruising started out alright. Then Bear got a little confused. Then he started trotting over to the arena’s exit and stopping by the gate. I would get him off the gate and keep him trotting without much of a prompt. But the fourth time it happened he moved off sharp and fast and threw in a buck. Maybe two, I wasn’t sure.

I reined him in and flexed his head to the left to make sure he wouldn’t buck again. When I looked down at his face it was apparent that he was already back to his super calm self and was showing no signs of anxiety or agitation. Nevertheless, I decided to get off and not press my luck. Three falls in quick succession is not something I want achieve.

We exchanged his bridle for a rope halter and long line and went outside to do groundwork on the strip. Our groundwork routine is pretty rusty, so I didn’t spend too much time working on the new things. Instead we kept it simple with him moving out of my space and then coming to me when asked. If he didn’t come, I made him work on the line until he was ready to come to me.

At this point Bear was definitely nervous. I think he knew he shouldn’t have bucked, and he was probably expecting some punishment. Maybe harsh punishment. But that is not what I wanted to dole out. I wanted respect, not fear; so I didn’t press him too hard, and I went home to think about the events of the afternoon.

After much contemplation and discussion with Robin, we figured the likliest answer was that he was a little sore and possibly confused by the relatively new bit and the new concept of cruising. After I thought about it, I realized that Bear was not doing well turning right. A few times when I asked for the right turn, he jumped into a trot. When we were on the lead line, I couldn’t get him to go around me to the right, and I tried pretty hard. And when he bucked, it was immediately after a sharp right turn.

So I gave him Friday off, and on Saturday Robin and I went out to see how he was doing. There were no apparent signs of soreness, but he is definitely stiffer going right than he is going left. So we had a super non-demanding day on the strip. Robin hung out bareback on Steen and gave Bear and I a little lesson. That way she could really keep an eye on both of us.

And it was fun. We did some simple drills that involved following the fence and stopping at a post of my choosing. We walked in lots of circles in both directions. And we did some figure-eights. In between we did lots of standing, flexing, and backing. Bear was not great at everything, but he was relaxed. And we could see him trying and slowly limbering up on his right turns. I’ll have to be aware of this and keep going slow with him.

We also got a lot of cool pictures. It was a cloudy, fall day, so the light was pretty good.




Robin’s got some more cool shots on her blog.