Windy and lunging

Yup...still raining.  Today it came with a lot of wind.  By the time I got to the barn after work, it was really windy.  By the time I left it was starting to rain.  Supposed to rain thru the weekend.  No trail riding for me.  So today I took all 3 horses out and groomed them so they could get dirty again...just part of owning horses.  I lunged Skippy and Zoe together, focusing more on Zoe.  They both had fun racing around the arena bucking and kicking out - eventually I got a "ok, I'll get back to work" attitude from both of them.  I lunged first then cleaned them up.  I left Zoe for last, I wanted to go back into the arena and lunge on a lunge line and see what would happen.  The last time I did that it didn't turn out so well.  Previously I hadn't let her blow off energy so on the line she had a really bad attitude and tore the line from my hands and she went running off and stopped to eat leaves.  Then we had a "conversation" in the round pen and after that-she was good.  I hoped this time would be different because I had let her get rid of some of her energy, but I didn't know because it was soooo windy.  Sometimes in the wind she seems to have LOTS of energy.  But she did just fine.  In fact her lope was so slow, I had to get on her case for her to put more effort into it.  I did ride her a little bit, bare back with just her halter.  I briefly tried the half-halts I had been working on.  She really paid attention.   At least Zoe and I got to do something together today.

Pilates and the half-halt

Between the rain and the Thanksgiving holidays I haven't been on the trails much.  Maybe this week.  So my riding has been in the arena on Monday and Tuesday mornings.   I recently read a very good description of the half-halt in Pilates For Riders by Lindsay Wilcox-Reid.  We've been able to do half-halts for quite a while now, but I wanted to work on the more advanced levels.  So I've been working on the half-halt in the mornings.  Sometimes we "get" it and sometimes we don't.  I need to get better with my cues/timing and Zoe needs to get better at listening for the finer points.  I've really enjoyed reading this book and I look forward to doing pilates.  I think it will help me and my horse.    

Canal Trail and cantering again.

Today we went down to the canal trail again.  I went a different way.  We took Lomida, Prospector, HSB, Pioneer Express Trail, Canal Trail, Lake Forest Trail, back to forest and home.  It's a nice little ride.  Zoe and I left on our ride today before Skippy's rider came to the barn....so we had no calling at all.  None on the way out and only 1 on the way back-on the corner of Aub/Folsom and Lomida.  By that time Skippy and Sky were out on the trail.  No one answered Zoe back when she called.  (We will practice leaving when Skippy is coming back in the future.  Last week was interesting and we need to do it again.)  While out on the canal we practiced cantering again.  It went really well.  Once she spooked at a log next to the trail-side stepped and dropped down to a trot.  I laughed at her.  Later when we were cantering, we were able to keep it up for quite a while.  Zoe kept slowing down, almost breaking into a trot-it was if to say "can we slow down now?  This is unusual."  It was a nice canter-Zoe did a good job.  Not so sure what she will do with another horse involved.  Usually if she is in the lead she does fine.  If anything we need to practice being in the middle or in the back and cantering.  

Wasn't sure how this ride would turn out

I've been riding by myself on the canal trail lately, it's one of my favorite rides.  Last week Zoe cantered nicely by the lake.  Sometimes she canters like a frantic, mad pony down there.  So we have been working on that.  Last week was good.  This week was also good...altho I wasn't so sure at the beginning of the ride.  When we left the barn, we passed Skippy in the barnyard.  She was just coming back from a ride as we went out the gate.  Zoe's mind was on the barn and Skippy-not trail riding.  She called out many times on the road.  Once on the trail she still called.  So I thought I'd try some circles.  Every time she called I circled, but that didn't seem to help.  She got more worked up, didn't calm her at all.  I need to try another "if you're going to act like a brat, you get to do more work" method.  So we did some trotting.  It turns out that she doesn't call while trotting.  And she seems to be busy moving, watching where she is going.  Hmmmmm trotting is the answer today.  So we trotted alot.  When we first started out I wasn't sure we would make it to my original destination-the canal trail-but now it seemed possible.  While trotting I met C on Dune as they were heading back to their barn.  I slowed for them, told C that I had to keep moving and I would explain tomorrow at lunch.  We trotted most of the way to the canal trail and once on the trail kept it up.  We even cantered.  I thought she might revert back to frantic, mad cantering but she did really good.  Seemed that her mind was back on her job.  On the Lake Forest trail back home she did good.  I thought she might try to get back to the barn as fast as she could, but she was content with any speed I chose.  We met up with  a water maintence worker on the first street we came to...he was flushing out a pipe.  I could see the water moving down the street past his truck.  Just as we passed the truck, Zoe jumped..."oh my gosh, mom, did you see that water!!!!".  I was thinking she might do that and was prepared for it.  The worker and I laughed and he shut off the water.  I was hoping he'd keep it on some more.  Anyway it turned out to be a good ride.

Sad to mad

Yesterday we had to put one of our dogs down.  I always thought this dog, Noodles (yes Noodles can be a dog's name), would outlast her sister, Sophie.  But no.  Anyway I was in a sad "funk" for most of yesterday and today until....I went to the barn and saw my horse.  Now that sounds nice and warm and fuzzy.  But no.  Zoe, being lunged on a lunge line in the arena decided to pull away and run off.  She had attitude before she ran off.  She decided that eating leaves and running around without that lunge line constraint was a "good idea".   Well, she made me mad.  I had more than just my "mad face" on.  Since she decided that running was such a good idea, we practiced it in the round pen.  Afterwards I had one contrite, sweaty horse.  We tried lunging with the lunge line again in the arena...and she was an angel.  I could even take her off of the line and she would follow me everywhere, at any speed, even backwards and sideways.  So I got to feel something besides sad...mad.  And the whole experience kind of snapped me out of my "funk".  So even the outside of a "horse acting badly" can be good for the inside of a wo(man).