Getting Somewhere

March 17, 2013

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

We got to the barn early today and had the place to ourselves. Laredo came all the way out from behind the windblock and sloshed through the muck to get to me. He is, in fact, the best of our three horses about coming to us, I guess because we started working on that with him from day one and have never stopped. Steen usually comes to me, but he seems to do it most consistently on the days I am going to be riding Laredo. *sigh* It always makes me feel a bit bad to have to tell him he can't come. During grooming, Laredo seemed different about his head. He never tensed up when I was working on that side of his neck or head with the brushes, which is a first. He had some hair around his problem ear that had gotten wet and dried out, so it was kind of matted and crunchy. I got a jelly curry and intended to work on being able to get to that area to see if I could help with it at all....

A Tiny Outing

Robin

March 14, 2013

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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Today the sun was out, and although it was not exactly warm it felt like spring.

Steen is shedding in earnest now. He was warm under his blanket. Hopefully he can go naked before much longer.

We were indoors for most of the ride. I started out working on figure eights with no hands. It has been driving me crazy that Steen and I still struggle with this. I can hold the reins in one hand and essentially not move, and do very nice figure eights. But if I put the reins down entirely, sometimes things are great, but sometimes our precision goes right out the window.

I have been trying to figure out where the breakdown is, and today I finally had an epiphany. I was paying very close attention to what my hands do when I ask for a turn and I noticed I have an exceedingly ingrained habit of always using a supporting rein. Most of the time it is just...

Refining Laredo

Robin

March 14, 2013

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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We managed a mid week barn trip for the first time in ages today. It was cold but sunny, and it felt great to leave town in the afternoon. I rode Laredo. Before the ride, I worked quite a bit on his head/ear issue. It's basically reduced at this point to more of a grouchy reaction than a genuine fear response, and it's only triggered when you actually touch his right ear. This is vast improvement to what it was a few months ago (genuine fear reaction whenever anything moved towards his face or head) but it's still very much there. The way we bridle, I usually slip the headstall over the horse's right ear first by reaching over the horse's forehead and guiding the ear gently forward with my hand and slipping the headstall behind, then doing the same with the left ear. This doesn't work with Laredo because as soon as you try to touch his right ear he starts the evasion tactics. ...

Steen Weekend

Robin

March 11, 2013

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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We may have gone over to a friend's house for dinner last night and accidentally consumed a little too much wine. As a result, we weren't up and out of the house at the crack of dawn today. And of course, daylight saving's time stole an hour of our night on top of everything else. We limped out to the barn around 1:00. It basically had not stopped raining since we were last there. When we put Steen and Laredo back in the pasture after our last ride, we noticed Bear was shivering. We've never seen Bear shiver before, so we brought him in, dried him off and put a blanket on him. So today he and Steen were both wearing soaked purple blankets. Luckily the Wugs seem to be entirely waterproof and both horses were bone dry underneath. I opted to ride Steen today because wine has been giving me vertigo lately and I was still a little light-headed. Not so much that I figured I was goi...

Signs of Spring?

Robin

March 10, 2013

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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We knew it was going to be a rainy weekend, but were determined not to let this phase us. Today we got up and went right out to the barn. We found everyone super, super wet. We took Steen and Laredo inside and got them cleaned up, but we didn't allow them their usual pre-ride romp as we didn't want them all over sand. Steen was warm and dry under his blanket, but shedding:

I hadn't seen him for a few days so there was quite an accumulation under his blanket. Hopefully this means we will get some nicer weather soon. Steen was good with groundwork. I worked some on backing with rhythm from the ground, in hopes this would translate to under saddle work later. At first he wanted to jump left or right after we went more than a few ste...

Prioritizing Happiness (aka: Horses)

Robin

March 9, 2013

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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We've basically been making it to the barn on weekends only lately. This is not at all ideal, but the weather has been bad and my workload rather overwhelming. Arguably my greatest lifelong personal struggle is with my attention span. I seem to have something like the opposite of ADD. What I mean by this is it's very easy for me to get excessively focused on one aspect of my life, often to the detriment of everything else. Being that I am my own boss, this can translate into a problem with over-working. I have to set firm rules for myself. These rules consist of strict limits to prevent me from working constantly. Here are a few of them:

no working on weekends
no checking email before I accomplish my personal goals for the morning
no working after dinner
no answering the phone or responding to clients outside of normal business ho...
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And a Few More

Robin

March 4, 2013

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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The weather has continued to keep us confined to the indoor arena. While I am very grateful to have access to such a facility, it definitely limits our riding options. This time of year it often seems we start to struggle to come up with things to do and work on. When that happens, it means we need some inspiration. So we've returned to working our way through our "7 Clinics with Buck" DVDs. I can't get over how great these are. They are almost as good as actually going to a clinic. You get to see Buck ride, and you get to see people learn and make positive changes with their horses. The first time we went back to the barn after watching an hour or two of Buck, we had plenty to do in our tiny indoor. I have identified a number of quantifiable things I want to accomplish with Steen in the next few months. I have put together a list of what I plan to work on every ride until we ha...

A Few Winter Rides

Robin

February 23, 2013

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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So far February hasn't been quite the springboard back into an active barn habit that I was hoping for. Work is just nuts so far this year. We've been taking some steps to help get in front of the workload, but a lot of days I would have liked to have gone to the barn lately, I just had to stay home and get stuff done. But it's ok. The footing in the pasture is still pretty rotten and the weather is bad. We're confined to the indoor arena anyway, so it's a good time for me to get a lot of work done... Still, I've had a few good rides.

Laredo

I rode Lareo on the 16th. I've been continuing to ride him in the hackamore, with my spurs. We had another really excellent ride. We started out with simple transitions, working on keeping his energy level up, etc. Then as the ride went on I got gradually mor...

Thoughts on Strength

Robin

February 16, 2013

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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On Thursday, I set a new personal strength record. I pressed a 35lb kettlebell five times on my right side, and three times on the left. This was a "test" workout, geared to assess my limits and see if I've gotten strong enough to progress from the 26lb bell I've been using for my regular workout to the 35.

To move up I had to be able to press the 35lb bell at least three times on each side. I did my right side first, which is my stronger side. I was hoping I'd manage the 3 but, honestly, wasn't sure. I'd only pressed the 35 a handful of times before, and never multiple times in a row. When I got 5 before failing while trying for a 6th, I couldn't believe it. I was giddy with a sense of accomplishment.

Since September, I've been doing a workout with the somewhat ridiculous name of the Rite of Passage (or ROP, for short) from Read more

Soggy Sunday

Robin

February 10, 2013

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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We woke up to a chill drizzle but were determined to get to the barn anyway. Walking into the pasture it was misting lightly, and the horses were all sodden but not uncomfortable. Steen, of course, is largely protected by his blanket. His head and legs were soaked but the rest of him was warm and dry. Laredo was really, really wet so we let them have some time in the indoor arena to move around and dry off a tad. There was some playing with the ball. Now that Steen sees Laredo play with it so much, he is getting a little more interested, but he doesn't quite know how to join in. There were some pretty funny moments while they played.

The ride was nice. Steen was really mellow, whi...