Still Cruisin’

December 18, 2009

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

Today Steen and I had our first real indoor ride at the new barn. And I must say, things went pretty well. When I first brought him inside he was nervous, as he's been lately, but a little better than the last couple of times. He was also very clean and very fluffy, so grooming was easy. Mounting went well and after anchoring myself to his bare back via my left hand's firm grasp upon his (luckily ample) mane, I was ready to go. I knew he'd be spooky, but I also knew the best way to get over everything fastest would be to just let him move around naturally in the new space. So, we cruised, just like in the old days when he was getting used to having me on his back. First we walked and walked and walked with me not steering. Gradually, the snorting and high, nervous head-carriage disappeared. We walked some more. Then, we wor...

Snowed Out

Robin

December 14, 2009

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

Learn More

Steen spent most of the last week snow-locked in his pasture. The main problem was the door into the indoor arena from the pastures was covered in a huge drift. So, being unable to get him inside anyway, I didn't see him after my Tuesday visit until yesterday. Sunday morning found Brian and I driving out to the barn. We retrieved our horses and brought them inside. Steen was a bit agitated again. I'm not sure what is behind his new-found indoor antsy attitude. I imagine it's a combination of factors, but I think one of them is the grain. I wish I could find a way to get him through the winter without having to feed him so many compressed calories... So, we had another day of groundwork and I was pretty firm with him a lot - really making him move out of my space, and fast. And I contrasted this with a lot of standing around with me petting his rump and back. He did relax at time...

Snow!

Robin

December 9, 2009

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

Learn More

We have a big storm rolling through this week, so I figured I'd better get out there and see Steen today just in case the roads are inaccessible for the next few days. I found him in a snowy pasture. The herds were a bit riled. I'm not sure if it was the weather or what but everyone was moving around a lot more than usual.

Doc and Chase playing... chase.

Catching Up

Robin

December 6, 2009

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

Learn More

I've fallen a bit behind on the horse blogging lately. I started with my trip home for Thanksgiving. Although I did go on one nice long solo ride on my sister's horse, Jak, it was a largely horse-free week. We returned to Iowa and I was quite Steen-sick. We went to the barn the day we got back and went on a truly lovely trail ride. I rode Steen. Brian rode Cal. And our friend Gail rode her horse Doc. We went all over the place, and Steen behaved like a champion trail-horse. He went through mud, across running water. He reacted with calm unconcern when we saw deer in the distance. It was lovely. We rode for over an hour and a half and returned to the barn. Then, as I was leading the very calm Steen across the indoor arena he tripped and hit me in the back of the heel with his hoof. Ouch. I couldn't get my foot in...

The Barn, Steen, Me and Mud

Robin

November 20, 2009

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

Learn More

Here is the third in our Not-Highly-Exciting Video series. This one includes a little video tour of the barn, a walk out to the pasture where Steen lives and some grooming footage.

Starting Them Young

Robin

November 16, 2009

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

Learn More

Today Steen and I had a glorious ride that involved no spooks, and a sustained, balanced, steady and not at all crazy lope out on the trails! Then we came home and I untacked just in time to receive some very special visitors. My friend, Adele, and her son Ben came out to meet Steen. Luckily, Steen is always on his best behavior for new people and he really does seem to enjoy kids. I did some groundwork with him and we introduced Ben. They both seemed curious, though Steen was friendlier than Ben, initially. We had some fun with petting and sniffing and some setting of Ben onto Steen's back. Then we wanted to take some pictures. I have so far neglected to desensitize Steen to cameras, and flashes in particular freak him out a little. Adele had her very nice digital SLR in tow, and I took a moment to let Steen get used to the clicking before we reintroduced Ben and the camera at ...

Aid and A Bit

Robin

November 16, 2009

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

Learn More

Brian went out last week for a solo ride on Cal, and things didn't go so well for the two of them. Although she is trained Western Pleasure, Cal's neck-reining sort of comes and goes as far as effectiveness is concerned, and Brian encountered increasingly frequent moments when she took his directional guidance with a grain of salt. Brian is at least considerate and educated enough to know better than to try to direct-rein with a curb, but when he got home and told me about all the difficulties he'd experienced, I felt something had to be done. So, I dug out the one snaffle (a big, fat loose-ring) I kept from the eight or nine varieties I tried on Steen while we were trying to find what he responded to best and put it on Steen's old headstall. Yesterday we returned to the barn, armed and ready with just about the mildest metal bit out there.

We arrived to find the feed-l...

Oh, Deer

Robin

November 14, 2009

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

Learn More

On Friday, Steen and I hit the trails again, and things didn't go so well. We started out with a mistake on my part. I assumed he'd be ok walking past a car he spooked at a few days ago. But he wasn't. Within two minutes of the start of the ride, he'd treated me to a 180 degree spin followed by a bolt.

After I stopped the mad dash, I hopped off and did what I should have done in the first place. I led him up to the car and let him sniff all over it until he was no longer scared. Then I remounted and we went on.

But, things continued to go downhill from there. One of his herd members was feeling vocal and calling to him as he walked away, which was not helping his desire to leave. And then, the final blow, three deer burst out of a thicket behind and below us, making a remarkable racket, but positioned in such a way that Steen could not see them. And he l...

Three Times is a Habit

Robin

November 12, 2009

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

Learn More

When I was a kid and had my first horse (and didn't know what I was doing) I had a neighbor who would sometimes give me pointers. A few of her remarks really stuck with me - trite as they were. One of her favorites was"familiar breeds content," and I have definitely found that one is true with horses. But she also once said to me, "Once is a mistake, twice is an accident and three times is a habit."

On Tuesday Steen and I took our third consecutive jaunt around the corn fields. He was worlds calmer than the last time, even seeming to relax and grow curious a few times. He was still in a bit of a hurry to get back and we still had a few directional disagreements, but we resolved these with very little difficulty and, in fact, to anyone watching they were probably nearly invisible.

My latest riding tidbit from my recent reading is the idea of the "center" as a...

Out and About

Robin

November 9, 2009

Novels for Horse-Lovers

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

Learn More

Today Steen and I managed a milestone of sorts. We did the same ride as we did yesterday, but we did it alone.

It is 2.5 miles of looping around and between various agricultural fields. It took us exactly 45 minutes. We had one tremendous spook and two small ones (the first two before we even left familiar territory), quite a bit of agitation on Steen's part, but he went and he came back and I stayed with him throughout. We even managed to walk on a loose rein most of the time, and only had two moments when he wouldn't keep going forward. But I just made him flex his neck a few times a...