What I got for Valentine’s Day

February 17, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

The flowers are from Brian. The dog is a bit of a mystery. She appears to be a Border Collie, probably about a year old. I saw her through my office window slinking around our yard. Then she proceeded to head out front into the street, where she was weaving among the parked cars and looking very lost. I saw she had a collar on, so I went to the porch door and called her. She came running and I let her onto the porch. I inspected the collar. No tags. So I called animal control and no one had filed a missing dog report. They asked if I would mind holding onto her for a few days and giving the owner a chance to show up. I said ok... That was Tuesday. It is now Friday. I had her scanned for a chip. ...

Exhausted

Robin

February 13, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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Life has been busy lately, and as a result I have not seen much of my horse. I haven't ridden since my last post. We were out of town Friday afternoon and Saturday. On Sunday we drove straight from Chicago to the barn to hold our horses for the farrier. We could have ridden after the trim, but we didn't.

We did turn the horses out in the arena before it was their turn to get attention from Duke. There were a few other horses turned out as well, and they were all romping and playing like colts. Steen always gets a tad confused when there is chasing and herd dynamics going on in his general vicinity, as he's a bit out of the loop socially. Yesterday his solution to not knowing exactly what was going on was to rear. He got in several huge rears. One of them he stood up higher on his haunches than I would have thought physically possible for him AND extended his front hoof up a...

Outside!

Robin

February 6, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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There was a new chiropractor at the barn today, and her treatment involves working with the horse and rider under saddle. We did not feel we needed to get any horses adjusted, but we hung around and watched for a while, then rode.

Since the indoor arena was in use, we went outside. The footing was not ideal. We rode on the strip, and things were mushy. It was our first ride outside in months, so I was curious to see how Steen behaved. All in all, I think he did about as well as I could reasonably expect. When we were in or "comfort zone" he was great. He was attentive and it was nice to feel the extra energy. Between the deep sand in the indoor and the contained nature of that environment, he does tend to get sluggish inside. Outside he had a bit more verve, which translated into him putting more effort into some of our exercises.

However, pushing past the comfor...

More Leg Yields

Robin

February 4, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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Since last fall I've been working a lot on teaching Steen to break at the poll and give me the soft feel at all gaits, and I've also been holding pressure on the bit to keep him collected for a few strides at a time. But where I'm really starting to feel him move in a way I've never felt before is working on leg-yields at the trot. I'd worked on this before with Steen, but never really saw the point because I was doing it wrong. Now I'm having a lot of fun with it, particularly since Steen has started to soften up and enjoy the challenge of what I'm asking him to do.

We're still not really all that great at it, and today's ride was all around a bit worse than yesterday's. Steen wasn't bad, we just weren't nailing things quite the ...

Finding the Haunch

Robin

February 4, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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I've ridden three times since my last post, and each ride has been a bit better than the one before. I've been thinking a lot about precision, and keeping Steen in that delicate place where he is relaxed but still energetic. I've also continued to try to emphasize exercises that force Steen to engage his haunches, and I think these are really starting to pay off. Today we had a fabulous ride. It's the kind of ride I didn't even know was possible a year ago. When we were riding on Tuesday, Bear got big compliments from another boarder when Brian realized just before mounting that he'd forgotten his spurs. So he left Bear in the arena while he went back for them. I was already riding, and Bear stood quietly without budging an inch until Brian got back. The boarder who saw this was impressed, which got Brian and I speculating whether or not Steen would do the same thing. Today we d...

Quality over Speed

Robin

January 29, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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Horsemanship can feel vast sometimes. Whenever I see videos of Buck Brannaman or Ray Hunt working with a green horse, the main thing that floors me time and time again is how fast they are. They ask for one thing after another after another, and their horses stay focused and attentive. These last few rides I have been trying to push Steen more, but the major thing I have to be careful of is that I don't start rushing. Fantastic trainers can go fast because they are precise. Their horses are rarely confused because the rider always knows exactly what he wants and how to ask for it. I know most of my communication errors with Steen are my fault. Some of the time I'm asking him for things I've never actually felt a horse do before, which means I am sort of guessing. When I try to go fast, I get muddled, and when I get muddled, Steen gets upset. So today I was really thinking about ...

Early 2012 Fitness

Robin

January 27, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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I'm not the New Year's resolutions type. Not because I don't think I need to change anything about my life, but because I have never once had any success with the idea. In my experience all major changes come about slowly. One tiny, itty bitty step in the right direction followed by many more tiny, itty bitty steps equals change. So for me, while it would be great if I could say to myself, "I'm going to get super fit this year," it is too much. A year is too long. The goal too abstract. I find it much more effective to break things into smaller pieces. But for the moment I do have a fitness goal, and I am hoping it is something I can achieve within four to six weeks. The goal is both simple and huge. I want to be able to do a pull-up. In many programs that work towards a combination if all-around fitness, strength, and health, the pull-up is the barometer. If you are physically ...

Half Thawed

Robin

January 27, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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The pasture is in a bit of a state right now:

So I always feel like it is a good thing to get the horses inside, get their hooves dried out and get them moving a little. Steen has lost some fitness in his three weeks of convalescence. Today my plan was to trot a lot. Instead I ended up loping a lot. But I'm getting ahead of myself. My work on moving the front end over seems to have already helped. A month or two ago I was reading Hackamore Reinsman by Ed Connel, and he talked about how different horses are inclined to use their bodies differently from birth. He said most horses do mos...

Mostly Healed

Robin

January 26, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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Well, January has not been a great month for riding. Work has been busy, Steen has been healing, and the weather has been uninviting. So the horses have been getting some time off. Beyond making sure Steen's leg wasn't getting any worse (mostly thanks to Brian looking in on it for me), I've not had anything to do with the horses in days. But today I was more than ready to get back out there. Brian and I decided we would go after work, no matter what, and I spent the whole day looking forward to it. After we got to the barn and brought the horses in, we turned them out for a few minutes inside. The pasture is icy, and sometimes when their movement is more confined outside they get a kick out of tearing it up in the indoor. Mostly this time they just wanted to roll.

Kettlebell Recap

Robin

January 20, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

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Since my declaration a while ago to use this blog to talk about fitness as well as horses, I haven't done the greatest job keeping up. But 2011 was pretty big year for me as far as strength goes.

After my stint doing 100 swings for 30 days, I tried to up that to 200 a day. But it was too much for my temperamental right side. I started experiencing the tightness and pain in the knee that seems to occur when I either a) work out too hard or b) don't work out enough.

I had a period of being rather inconsistent with the kettlebell, and started seeing what I'd gained from the swinging evaporate. So with the help of my husband, I made a plan. I chose six exercises and assigned them each a number. Every day I rolled a die and exercised accordingly. My numbers were: