Like Magic

September 2, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

After way too long a break to suit my preference, I finally made it back to the barn today. I was in a bit of quandary deciding what horse to ride. Brian was going to ride Bear, so that left me with my pick of the other two. At first I was leaning towards Steen (cuz I miss him) but Brian has had some great rides on Laredo and I was curious to see how he was going. So I decided to go with the youngster. I have to say the, the benefit of sharing the training load with someone else is you only have to do half the work. I know Brian has been out there putting time in with Laredo, but to me it seemed like he magically morphed into a more accomplished horse during my absence. He came to me in the pasture, was great for grooming, and went through all our groundwork without a problem. I mounted and we started riding around. I have often been struck at the very start of a ride on Laredo ...

Two Rides on Jak

Robin

August 31, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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It's amazing how time goes sometimes. Shortly after I last posted I thought I was having some bad allergies. It turned out I was actually sick. Just about the time I was starting to feel functional again, I hopped on a plane to Tucson, where I had a very good visit in spite of the fact Brian could not come with me. While in Tucson, I not only spent time with my family but hung out with the family horses. Mom and I had three good sessions down at the barn. The first, we went out in the late afternoon/early evening (it's hot in Tucson this time of year) and I went into the corral to catch Jak. He looked at me, turned away, walked into the corner, and pointed his butt at me. Jak and I have a pretty long history at this point which consists mostly of him convincing me he is about to die and me getting worried and not making him do anything. This trip, though, I was really hoping to ...

This is More Like It

Robin

August 19, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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We hit the trails again this morning. I gave Steen a little snack of chopped hay before we headed out. The nights are already getting colder, and the large pasture is no longer the lush all-you-can-eat buffet it is during the peak of the summer. This time of year Steen can get nervous about food. A lot of the time when I walk up to him in the pasture, he'll be grazing and he'll start eating faster and faster until I reach him, as if he's trying to pack as much down as possible before I take him in. It's not that he's going hungry. There is plenty to eat out there. But they have to work a little harder for it now, and I think something in their brains gets triggered by the shorter days and cooler nights. Just when the pasture gets sparse, they want to start packing on the pounds for winter. They don't know, biologically speaking, that they are going to have all the hay they can eat ...

A Little More Life

Robin

August 18, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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The weather has been beautiful lately, and we've had several good hard rains. The pastures have recovered from the drought to an extent that surprises me, and it is has been so nice to spend the days out at the barn and not get home feeling scorched.

Today we spent the morning over at Catalpa Corner, watching the cross-country part of an eventing competition. As much as I have no interesting in eventing myself, it is always neat to see a whole bunch of different people and their horses all at once.

After hanging around the course for an hour or two, we went to our own barn for a ride. Steen came to me in the pasture and he seemed from the start as if he was just in a really good mood.

I've decided now that Steen and I are getting pretty consistent about nailing the basics, what I need to work on speeding things up. When Steen is really relaxed he can g...

Triple Digits

Robin

August 16, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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Today I logged my hundreth hour in the saddle for the year. Of course loads of people ride a whole lot more than that, but considering 100 hours was our goal for last year, I feel good about being here in August. I rode Laredo. With our little time out of town, the trail rides we've been doing and a few other factors, it had actually been nearly two weeks since I rode Laredo. I was curious to see what he felt like. It's interesting to see the way he's learning things. Lately he seems like he's either on or off. If he's paying attention, he moves off your legs and hands like a dream. But he's prone to lapses of focus, so he vacillates from super responsive to just not there at all. Today, the first half of our ride was incredible. When I got on he was super attuned to me. He was staying between my legs and hands without any reminders from me, and we moved around like that for ...

Trail Jitters

Robin

August 13, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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We rode today with the new boarder Kat on her horse, Tate, who is the same age as Laredo but with considerably more saddle time under his belt. He has apparently been hauled around the country, taken to rodeos, trail ridden, and exposed to all sorts of stuff, despite his tender years. You can tell too. He's pretty mellow about things.

Which is good because my theoretically more mature mount decided to backslide somewhat on the trail. We rode out the normal way, and it was actually Steen's fourth day in a row being ridden. I thought he would be super quiet.

Instead he was a little jumpy. I actually think he was over-tired and perhaps a bit mentally fatigued. It was also much cooler than it has been on our jaunts lately, and warm weather has always had a calming effect on him.

Whatever the reason, he was just a little on edge most of the ride. He was inc...

Rotating Mounts

Robin

August 11, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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We haven't had a day where we've worked with all three horses for a while, but today it was just beautiful out, so we figured it was a good day to spend loads of time at the barn. Also in our chatting recently we've realized it has been AGES since I rode Bear. I've certainly never ridden him in the hackamore, and I don't think I've even had a real go at riding him since we went to our first Buck clinic and made a lot of serious changes to the way we ride. So today we decided I would start the ride on Bear and Brian would start on Steen. We'd ride for a while, then I'd switch to Steen and Brian would ride Laredo. It was funny tacking and grooming Bear. Bear is such a solid horse. Although he is shorter than Steen, he is bigger in terms of mass, and he's so quiet and immobile. Steen isn't the antsy guy he used to be, but the difference between the way they feel just to be aroun...

Ride Medley

Robin

August 10, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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We've had a busy start to August and I've gotten behind on the blogging. So I'm going to do a quick catch-up post.

August 2 - Thursday

I rode Laredo. We didn't have a great ride. It was one of those days where nothing was bad, exactly, but nothing was great either. We did all our usual stuff and he was just spacey. It was also really hot because we went out in the afternoon, and I do think the horses have trouble concentrating on their work after they've been standing in the beating sun all day. Ride Time: 0:50

August 4 - Saturday

We took Bear and Steen out again and hit the trails. We decided to try out typical route backwards, and for some reason Steen was nervous heading out. He was fine if a tad jumpy until we got to a house where several big dogs live in the yard and like to bark at passing horses. Steen is normally pretty fine with these guys, and he was...

The last ride of July

Robin

July 31, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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We rode in the morning again today. The horses were all out on the hilltop in the pasture when we arrived, and everyone was a bit revved because two horses were moved from the stall herd to the pasture herd. Bear led a charge down the hill to see us, and it was neat to watch the variety of horses move down the incline.

I rode Steen in the hackamore today. My main goal for the ride was to work on holding the soft feel while we are moving, and continuing to focus on non-demanding movements to help with this. Steen's feet are in bad shape and one in particular is worn on one side on long on the other (the farrier comes on Sunday). So I wanted to keep things slow and mellow anyway. I started ou...

Happy on the Trail

Robin

July 29, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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Today our morning ride plans were foiled by storms, so Brian and I headed out later and didn't connect with the horses and riders we've been going out with the last couple of Sundays. We decided to venture out on our own. Brian chose to ride in the hackamore, which is the first time either of us has ridden out past familiar territory without a bit. (I rode in the snaffle.)

We weren't sure what kind of overall attitude we'd get from Bear and Steen. The first time we did this ride, we literally had half the pasture herd with us, so all the horses were gaining a lot of confidence from the company.

Brian and I made our way out past the fields near the barn and along the scary creek section, where Steen tends to get jumpy. And he was a little jumpy. He startled when a large bug fluttered in the corn, but he didn't do anything. We made it to the gate and he was able to...