Finally get to ride

So-due to the rain- the last time I was on the trail was 3/16, the last time I rode - was in the barn isle on 3/22.  Today was really nice I actually got to ride my horse...in the arena.  It was sure nice to get back on.  She did pretty good, even did some loping.  The arena is nice with the sand.  She paid attention and we could pick up where we left off with the collected trot in a circle and trying to pick up the canter without tossing the head.  Somewhat successful....a process.   I remember when she was younger she would have soooooo much energy after a long period of rain and not riding that I was never sure what I was going to get-calm, reasonable or wild, unruly.

Riding in the Barn?

So this morning I get up at 4:30 thinking that it won't rain.  I even check the doppler on my phone before leaving the house...clear.  I get to the barn, get Zoe, tack up and......it rains:(  Not just a little but it pours.  Well no use wasting a good tack up so I put up some obstacles in the barn isle and rode Zoe in the barn, using the obstacles in many different ways.  Then I got off and tied up her reins and did some "follow me" work without me touching her reins.  Following me forwards, going backwards when I walked backwards.  Stopping and looking at her head on and asking her to back between objects.  Again stopping her and asking her to sidepass over a bucket and doing it again in the opposite direction.     She was probably wondering "why?"  And just when it was normally time to get off my horse, untack and put her away....it stopped raining.  Of course.  Oh well.

Reminiscing

Well it's raining too much to ride this weekend so I did some remembering.  As I was cleaning Zoe and Skippy's spot today I remembered something.  When Zoe was younger she hardly ever stood under a shelter when it was raining.  Skippy and Zoe have a shelter where their manger is, it's a large enough area for both of them to stand comfortably and even move around some.  But when Zoe was  younger she didn't like to stand under the shelter.  Often times I would go out there and she was totally soaked and happy.  Never did she seem to be shivering.  Skippy always stands under the shelter when it rains.  Now that Zoe is older she seems to like the shelter too.  But Zoe still has that adventuresome spirit and if one of them ventures out from under the shelter....it will probably be Zoe.  

Babbling creeks

Last Wednesday's ride wasn't very long....only 1:21 and 4.58 miles, but was interesting because of all the water we have been getting lately.  There was water running just about every corner we went around.  Running water, not pools and puddles.  Yes parts were muddy and you had to be careful about the footing, and there were new places that 4-wheelers had played in the mud, but I could manage to get around everywhere I wanted to go.  But I was amazed at all the babbling creeks, it made for a nice SOUNDING ride.  I have never gone out there and had such a nice time listening to the sound of water.  You could see where the water had created larger creeks in many places, places that I had never seen the water flow before.  Zoe and I were amazed.  She did good on this ride... as the landscape had changed some and she could have been scared about it.  I think both of our curiosity was the bigger factor in this ride.  It was very nice.  Now that we are having alot more rain, I hope we can still enjoy the rides out there.  4.58 miles, max speed 8.95, avg speed 3.79

Little Foot and Zoe

Little Foot is one of the barn cats...nice and fluffy, and can be a pest sometimes.  Zoe has learned that this cat is nice especially to check out with her nose.  Little Foot will allow Zoe's nose to nestle in her fur.  I think Zoe likes the softness and Little Foot loves any attention.  Sometimes when I'm riding in the arena early in the morning Little Foot follows us out and meows to us to pick her up.  Sometimes I do and sometimes I ignore her.  Zoe doesn't seem to mind taking the cat for a ride, and Little Foot has gotten used to traveling in my arms while on horseback.   Last Saturday morning in the arena I set up some of the barrels about 12 feet from each other...intending to do some figure 8's backwards and forwards.  Little Foot decided to jump up on one of the barrels and meow at us.  As I went by the barrel and headed towards the other barrel, the cat jumped off the first barrel and ran towards the second barrel...the one I was headed for.  He hoped on the barrel and meowed at us again.  I decided to see if he would follow me to the other barrel again, so I turned and went towards it....and yes, the cat followed us.  I did that a few more times and the cat continued to follow us-each time jumping up on the barrel and meowing at us- so......I took pity on it and scooped it up and rode to the other barrel and set it down.  Little Foot  was happy and stopped bothering us and we continued working on our barrels.  Silly cat.  Good Zoe for putting up with the cats antics.  

A Ride Before the Rain

A friend and I went managed to squeeze a ride in before the rain today.  She wanted to work on her horse going up the "race track" at a more manageable speed, and I thought it would be a good chance to see how Zoe would do following another horse that wanted to go faster....did she remember her manners that we practiced so much last summer?  We tried a trot up the "race track" with Zoe in the lead...no big surprises there.  Zoe trots faster than she used to, but doesn't go all out, so it was very manageable for everyone.  Next we made a big circle and put the other horse in the lead.  He did fine at a trot, it was a nice big trot.  Zoe was following and for part of the way up the hill decided that loping would be the best gait.  She had good manners and I managed to get her down to a trot, I wanted her to work on extending the trot and she got to practice that.  The only thing that she did weird was to toss her head when I went to grab a piece of her mane.  Next we went up beginners hill, Zoe in the lead at a trot...again no big surprises.  At the top we turned around and went just 1 level down and put the other horse in the lead.  He did great and Zoe didn't try to lope up it, but stayed at a trot.  Zoe was almost pushy...wanting the other horse to go faster.  And again she tossed her head when I grabbed her mane.  I think I was not being very careful and may have poked her in the withers.  So we continued on our ride and changed places often....and I was careful how I grabbed a piece of mane and we did fine.  Zoe didn't seem pushy anymore either.  On our way home Zoe was in the lead and we trotted up the cow pasture past the rocks that she doesn't like.  She shyed away from them and made a big deal about it so at the top I circled her and we immediately went back down the hill to trot up it again.  No problems the second time around.  4.98 miles, max speed 9.02, avg speed 4.22

A Loopy Ride

Today's ride had many loops to it.  It was a ride I planned to see how Zoe would do going out, heading back, going out somewhere else, heading back, going out somewhere.......you get the idea.  She did pretty good.  We trotted when we had good ground and walked the rest...mud.  We went out to beginners hill, turned right at the top, worked our way down to the big road and turned towards home only to turn to go out again before we hit "grand central station".  Then we went towards the big rocks that the 4-wheelers like to go up, took the small trail to the left and the next trail to the left so we ended up on the road where the horses live on the other side of the fence.  Followed that road to just past the turn off for Inspiration Point, made a few loops there and turned towards home.  Ended up at the place where the lone tree stands in the middle of a 4-wheeler muddy place, turned around a few trees and headed to the left towards bread rock.  Turned right at bread rock, right on the next road, at right at the next road...which landed us back at the lone tree.  The trail is pretty mucky there, but passable, the 4-wheelers aren't helping.  We headed back up the same trail and this time before we got to bread rock we turned left and took the shortcut to enchanted valley.  At the top we turned left and started heading towards deer valley, but found another loop to the right, back up the hill to the top where we originally turn left and....turned left again.  Back down the same trail, took the left turn to deer valley and followed the small trails towards the big road.  At the big road instead of heading right (towards home) we turned left and headed towards the KBB hills.  This road meets another large road (another crossroads) and that was another mucky place....but we found our way thru.  I'm so glad Zoe does good with water and muck.  Instead of turning right (towards home again) we turned left so we were headed the back way to look out rock.  But we didn't go that far but picked up a trot and turned right at the first road to find a small trail to the right that I like to trot up.  At the top we jogged to the left and took the big road to the bottom.  At the bottom I turned around here to trot back to the top.  At  the top we jogged to the left and took the small trail to the bottom.  At the bottom we turned right and we were back at the crossroads.  Now we turned left towards home and met up with a very LARGE trail ride - 10 riders.  We were ahead of them on this road and they turned off at a trot.  Zoe was a little excited, but I encouraged her to keep her mind on her job, going forward and picking our way thru the mud puddles.  I decided to give her a break and just head towards home for a while.  We went on the trotting trail which has a small creek running thru part of it.  We dropped down into the cow pasture and I took the high road to stay out of the mud in the middle.  When we reached beginners hill......yes we went up it again.  And at the top we took the small trail to the left towards home.  At the bottom we met another rider, Zoe was very interested in this horse and whinnied....just once.  We headed towards home, I started a few songs which she seems to like...no more whinnys and a calmer horse.  We walked the rest of the way home, did our usual side passes at the top of the second cow pasture, went across the creek and went home.  Zoe's attitude for all of this was pretty good.  She did question me a little bit going up beginners hill the 2nd time, but only for a few steps.  She didn't get real itchy to get home.  Her whinny to the lone rider was unusual, but her attitude was good.  Just getting her back to work seems to really help...along with some songs.  I wonder if other people experience music as soothing to their horses.  I was thinking of putting my phone on pandora.com and just letting it play.  Sometimes I do that in the arena in the mornings.  She was a bit sweaty when we got back....a roll in the front pasture was in order along with some goodies in her bucket.   7.79 miles, max speed 8.46, avg speed 3.99

Finally....another lesson..updated

I'm sure Zoe didn't think "finally....another lesson".  It was more like "do we have to????"  But I enjoyed it.  We got to work on a collected canter.  I hope I can remember everything.  It is late and my flight leaves early tomorrow so I plan of writing it down on the plane, then I will post it.  It really helps to write it down...I think I like this blog idea.
We had plenty of time to warm up in the arena so we went directly to a collected trot on a 20 meter circle.  We worked on getting a nice collected frame at a trot with some impulsion (impulsion is a foreign word to Zoe).  We settled on using the dressage whip to help with impulsion issues.  Zoe bends to the right better than to the left.  To the right she overbends so I have to use more outside rein & less inside rein to straighten her out.  To the left she doesn't bend as well and I need to use more inside rein and less outside rein....makes her bend better.  Zoe also has a habit of overbending at the poll-nose too far down.  So I had to pull her up sometimes & move my hands down the reins closer to her head.  When she gave I could relax the hold some.  Once I got a nice head position and a nice bend with impulsion, I could ask for a canter.  Whenever Zoe moves into a canter she tends to throw up her head....not allowed now.  So whenever she did that I was to drop back to the trot, get everything correct---bend & head position---and then ask again....and keep doing that until I got what I wanted.  My trainer said "never sacrifice position for gait".  We finally got the collected canter & kept it up on the 20 meter circle.  Then she started on my position to help Zoe out.  Elbows in, hands down, roll shoulders back, massage reins to remind her to bend at the poll.  I also needed to remember which rein needed to be tighter to get the bend correct.  We circled both ways then worked on downward transitions...of course remaining collected.  It was only a 40 minute lesson but Zoe and I worked hard.  In some ways she felt as she did when I first asked her to collect-tight & unbending.  She is learning how to do something new & I was told it would feel that way at first & in time she would soften some more.  We just need to keep working on it.  Lately our lessons are about 1 per month so I think I have plenty to chew on for the next month.  

Forest wet trails

Last Sunday we went on a ride in the forest and yes the trails were wet.  We didn't have time to go down to the canal trail, and it was breezy so we figured because of the the time constraint and that it would be windy and cold on the lake that we would stay in the forest.  We did find many trails that we could go on...up beginners hill, go to the right, stay on the hour loop, thru the mud puddles, cut off on the trail that goes to alligator rock, small trail to elephant rock and back home.  I wanted Skippy in the lead for a while and I figured that we would trot some, but the rider didn't feel it was safe enough to trot.  We did get a good walk out of them.  Skippy likes to power walk and Zoe is starting to do the same.  This ride was much the same as last weekend and maybe because of that the horses seemed calmer.  We met 2 other riders on the way home.  I tried the trot up out of the cow pasture between the rocks that Zoe doesn't like.....and she still doesn't like them.  She tried to slow down to a walk but I wouldn't let her...it took alot of kicking tho.  Probably won't get mid week rides in...it's supposed to rain.  Only 3.98 miles, max speed 8.39, avg speed 4.29