Lessons...yay! Lessons...do we have to?

I was last in lessons Jan 2011, then it was a group lesson.  I only managed to do it for a few times, then I didn't keep up with it.  Now I've started again.  This time it is private lessons once a month.  And I picked something that I want to work towards.  I want to be able to do a collected canter on a 20 meter circle.  I have been working on collection over the years and I've noticed that we do somethings good and somethings not so good.  But I wasn't sure how to correct the not so good things.  I like having a goal and I like the instruction.  Today it really helped and Zoe and I have a few things to work on until our next lesson.  I can blog about what I learned later as I would like the time to think and practice what I've learned.  So the rest of today's blog belongs to Zoe...

Mom, that was really hard work.  

Look how tired and sweaty I am.  

I think I prefer the trail.  

If only I could close my eyes a bit.  

Sleeping 

Canal Challenges Part 3

And we go on...and on...and on.  Part 3.
So on Sunday Skippy and Zoe went out on the canal trail.  I kept Zoe in front until just past "knee-knocker-rock" then Skippy took the lead.  I wanted Zoe to do the rocks in front again.  She did better this time, no stopping, balking or going backwards when being asked to go forwards.  I also wanted to see what she would do following a faster horse, would she have a good attitude, or head toss and buck. Granted Skippy didn't do her fastest trot, she did her medium trot.  For Zoe that meant to go at a fast trot.  Zoe did good.  Where we fell apart was just coming off the canal, just past the aquaduct.  The trail goes uphill and apparently it's fun to bolt up the hill-both of them did it.  We did manage to slow them down to a walk, then asked for a trot and got a nice one.  But with all that excitement, Zoe didn't buck.  And we trotted alot going towards Barking Dog Hill.  Still no bucks.  Yay!  I guess the next challenge is to do it with the 3 horses I was with last time.  It won't happen for a few weeks because of some other activities happening.  Part 4 coming up in a few weeks.

Canal Challenges Part 2

I have a feeling that we will have many canal challenges as the year goes on, there will be a part 3, part 4 etc. until we can't ride it any more.

Today's challenge was to ride the canal trail, do some loping to help Dune out, put Zoe in front so she had to deal with the scary rocks, see how Sky would do in the back.

Dune's mom had another lesson and the trainer wants her to circle Dune when he bucks-but only for 2 seconds.  Then go back to the spot he messed up and try it again.  Basically it's a turn around and go back, can't really circle for just 2 seconds.  Anyway that was the plan.  If he bucked we were going to stop, turn around and go back and try it again.  Dune was in the second position on this part of the ride. Well he did great-no bucking at all.  Dune's mom was so happy and proud of him,  I would be too.  So he didn't get to practice the turn around and start over...but later Zoe got to practice it (more on that later).

To get down to the canal trail we took a trail that I hadn't taken before.  It got us down to the canal a bit farther down the lake than I usually go.  It was very nice.  We decided to call it C's trail.  She was excited.  It seems that we all have something named after us.  There is C's Trail, D's Hill, M's cutoff, K's rock and C's igloo.  Anyway it was a new trail for Zoe and it had those scary rocks on it.  Yikes.  She was in the lead and did some hesitating over this new part but did pretty good for her.  She did mess up on the part of the trail that we ride all the time...she stopped and went backwards instead of forwards.  You would think she'd pull that "trick" on the unfamiliar part, but no-she did it on the part she is used to.  So I had no sympathy, it was either go in the direction I wanted forwards or backwards, but we were going in that direction.  She decided forwards was better.  She only did it a few times.  Silly horse.

Besides that-all the horses did well on the canal.  No bucking from Dune, no bolting from Sky, and Zoe was fine with moving out faster.   We decided that next time we would switch it up.  Everybody gets a try in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd positions.

Off the canal trail and on the Lake Forest trail Zoe got to practice Dune's lesson.  Sky in front, Dune next, Zoe last.  Sky picks up a trot going up a hill, Dune trots after him, Zoe starts out trotting then decides bucking would be good.  2 bucks.  I almost came off.  Yay for Pilates-good core conditioning.  So it was immediately back down the hill to try it all again.  Second time was better.  However I made a note to myself to watch my equitation better and to watch Zoe's attitude better.  And to work Zoe in the back more.  When we changed positions I knew if I was going to have some training issues it would be in the back so I declined the second position.  First on a familiar trail is usually good, second is good too, but back hmmm.  We all decided that switching it up some more is a good idea.  Dune's mom is concerned about doing all these challenges with Dune in the back position, but now that Zoe will be working on it too, we can encourage each other.  We tried trotting on one of the trails towards home and Zoe was okay in the back.  She looked like she was going to shake her head but I jiggled the reins and made my "funny noise" that says "you're in trouble" and she stopped.

Back at the barn, scratching my head on the post

Got anything good?

All that riding made my belly itchy!

Beauty Rest

Beauty rest before a ride.  Not often I see them both down.

Mid-week hurry home/separation rides

I've had interesting mid-week rides this week.  Wednesday Zoe and I went out by ourselves.  We loped up the sewer road, dropped down to a walk fine, spent time walk/trot for a while.  We turned to go home and saw another rider from our barn heading out on a ride just as we were headed back home.  Zoe then decided it was time to be in a hurry to get home.  Hurry for Zoe means walking very fast and maybe breaking into a trot.  Sometimes there is some head tossing thrown in.  Today we experienced all of those.  So we got to trot back up the hill we just came down.  Zoe wasn't too happy to start with-had some "steering problems".  But we made it up the hill and on the way back down was better-not so much in a hurry and no head tossing.  Once closer to home she calmed down even more.  I know some riders experience much more "hurry home behavior" than that, but for Zoe that is her M.O.  We did have to recross the creek on the way back as it wasn't done very calmly.

So I was wondering what to do for my next ride.  Do I do it alone and make it a loopy, up and down, back and forth ride-to deal with the hurry home behavior?  Or do I go out with my friend (as I usually do on Thursdays) and push the edge of the envelope in other ways?  I chose the 2nd option.

So on Thursday I went out with D and Sky.  We took turns loping in the lead on the sewer road.  Horses were fine.  I suggested before we left that we do some seperation, so we did that.  We found some large seperations to do, ones that you can't see or hear the other horse.  The horses did really well with this.  I think they are getting used to it.  I think they understand the "game" and know that the other horse will eventually show up.  The last separation was in a place we haven't played this game yet.  Zoe was a little bit wary but was listening well.  I think she was surprised to find Sky waiting for us.

Then we took the trotting trail home.  Zoe was in the lead.  You would think that with all the separations we did that Zoe would have been more confident going home.  After all her buddy was with her.  However there was a hawk buzzing us on the trotting trail.  Zoe didn't like the bushes moving when it landed.  She spooked about 3 times-tried to run to the side (WHERE ARE you going to go?) and jumped 2 times (it's just a BIRD, you DORK).  Just keep going, I told her, you'll be fine.  She did calm down.  Funny horses, just when you think it's all good, there's something to keep you on your toes.  Got a chance to practice balance and heels down.  I think the Pilates are paying off.  I did say at the beginning of the ride that I wanted to push the edge of the envelope!

Canal challenges

Today's ride challenged each of the 3 riders.  Zoe went on the canal trail with Sky and Dune.  The trip down to the canal was uneventful.  It was on the canal that each horse and rider got a chance to work on some issues.

History...Sky and Dune have been riding together alot lately and sometimes things go well and sometimes those 2 horses can egg each other on to do things with more energy than their respective riders would like.  Sometimes Sky can bolt, sometimes Dune tries to buck.  I just think they get excited around each other and aren't paying attention to their riders.  Then there are things each of the horses have issues with that the riders get to work on-like Sky doesn't like to cross water, especially running water,  Zoe loves to eat every chance she gets, Zoe doesn't like to be in front down on the canal-I think the rocks bother her.  Dune does pretty good with everything-until he tries to buck.

Today's ride-
Zoe is in the lead-I'm making her work on her "I'm scared of the rocks" thoughts.  She is doing pretty good.  Over the years she has gotten better on the canal trail.  I remember times that she would stop and refuse to go forward-even hitting her with the reins or a riding crop wouldn't work.  But...there is always sideways or backwards.  After traveling that way for a while suddenly forwards wasn't so bad after all.  But today forward it was all the time.  Yay!  We took the Pioneer Express Trail to the canal trail going up the Lake.  We got to the part where you had to cross a small creek.  Zoe hesitated mostly because it wasn't an easy crossing.  There were alot of rocks, not real good footing but it was doable.  The water was flowing but wasn't high.  Zoe found her way over and leapt towards the end, was calm on the other side as we waited for Dune to go next.  Dune just walks over, no problem.  He's a bigger horse, has a bigger reach with his legs, calmly walks over-he isn't bothered by the creek.  We wait for Sky.  Sky walks down to the creek, turns around and heads back up the trail on the other side-even tho all of his friends are on the other side of the creek.  Rider continues to try but he won't cross.  Rider off leading horse.  I caution her to watch out because he might jump the creek and she will not like it if he jumps on top of her.  He launches himself over, rider steps out of the way.  She takes him back over he jumps again.  She takes him back over and he walks over, did scramble a little bit.  She takes him back over, walks and scrambles.  She gets on to cross over and join us and he turns around to go home.  Sigh.  A few more times back and forth, rider gets a calmer crossing while hand leading him and calls it good.  All this time Dune stood nicely waiting.  Zoe decided eating would be good, she startled a bit when Sky scrambles over the rocks, otherwise she is good.  On we go.

Next we decide to trot.  Zoe in front, Sky second and Dune last.  Zoe's trot is not that fast, I guess the others figured that Zoe being slow would calm the excitability that can happen with the other 2.  For some reason Sky fell behind (imagine that-with a Zoe trot!)  Anyway he loped to catch up.  Then Dune decided bucking would be good.  Dune is now stopped and circling with rider mad at him.  She asked what to do.  I got a chance to say what I would do...ride the horse thru it, don't stop.  Ask him to keep going and do it with good manners, pull his head up if necessary-get mad enough to expect better things from him.  I have another horse, Skippy, that can get excited loping and she can do naughty things while loping.  I ride her thru it, and she gets it-naughtiness doesn't help her out.  Everytime Dune bucks, rider stops and circles, Dune doesn't have to work as hard or pay attention to her.  Situation over.  But the situation never improves...so she needs to ride the horse thru it.  It does mean that you have to be able to ride him thru it.  I think she is a good enough rider to do it.  Sky's rider chimes in with the same thought process.

So Dune's rider says she wants to try it, yay!  Dune's rider wanted to lope with Dune in front at first saying it would help him-but he never does the bucking while in front.  (She realizes that she has to change positions but wants to try this first)  Anyway while doing this I was concerned because they wanted me to be the second horse.  Now I'm in between Dune-who is going to lope-and Sky who might bolt off after him-and run right thru me. (remember the history at the beginning)  Hmmmm.  I ask if Dune starts loping gently or jumps into it.  Dune's rider says "don't worry the second horse always does fine"  I think she forgot the history.  Anyway I tell her to get going-I don't want to stand around and worry about it- and it all works out fine.  Sky doesn't run me over, phew.  Then we change places.  Zoe in front, Dune second, Sky last.  We pick up a trot and lope in the straight places.  I usually don't lope with more than 1 other horse down on the canal.  So it was a push for me, but I expected the best and I got the best.  Zoe did fine.  She loped calmly.  Dune tried to be naughty, and I heard voices behind me correcting the horse and I also heard "keep going".  So I would break it down to a trot-it was Zoe's fast trot- but we never stopped.  Then we picked up a lope again.  We did that many times and towards the end Dune did alot better.  He was loping in the second position with no bucking!  By the time we got that result it was time to get off the canal and head for home.  In all this work Sky did great in the back.  He never did try to bolt.  Good job for all the horses.

On the way home we came to the tree down on the Lake Forest Trail.  It had rained the night before so where the root ball was-it was full of water.  There is a wire fence on the left, the hole where the tree roots were, and the tree.  No other way around.  I got off and pushed a stick into the water.  The stick went down to the mud and kept going about 10 inches.  Too deep to go thru.  Sides too slick to expect the horses to walk on-so we had to turn around and go up to Sterling Pt to go home.  While down there we met Donna W.  She is a great crusader for keeping the horse trails open and passable.  She was taking pictures and wondering why the trail hadn't been cleared yet.  It was supposed to be cleared a few days prior.  We are all glad for Donna and her hard work for the horse trails.

On the way back we put Sky in the lead, Dune second and Zoe last.  All the horses did good in these positions.  We did run into the barking dog on the way out to the street.  Zoe gets a little jumpy around him.  But she did okay.  It did help that the owner was at his gate and he was talking to Donna W (she does get around) and he called off his dog.  He never calls off his dog-probably did it because Donna was there.

So it ended up being a good ride all around.  We all know we have things to work on, no horse is perfect all the time.  And we got a chance to work on some of those things, we made improvements on them.  

Vet wrap & saddle bags

One of my horses, Skippy, lost a front shoe.  We decided to try an Easy Boot on our ride today.  She could probably go without her shoe but we erred on the side of caution and used the boot.  Only thing is I wasn't sure it would stay on.  It seemed just a tad too big.  Saddled the horses, out on a test ride.  Lost the boot 3 times in 2 miles.  Yup, too big.  So to remedy that situation I decided to put vet wrap on her foot then put the boot on.  Zoe and Skippy were very patient with all the stopping we did on this ride.  I carry lots of things in my saddle pack and vet wrap is one of them.  Only I discovered that my vet wrap was old.  Very old.  I did manage to get it unwrapped, ripped alot of it in pieces to get a solid strip going, tried to do it with minimal lumps in it-finally got her foot wrapped and the boot back on.  We decided to keep it at a walk with a few slow trots and try not to go on many technical up and down hills.  The boot stayed on.  Yay!  But one of the morals of the story for me concerned my old vet wrap. I need to go thru my saddle pack on a more regular basis and take stock of what is in there and replace old stuff.  Also need to pick up a smaller Easy Boot.

Grandson's trip to the barn

It seems that about every 3 months I take my grandson, Zeke, to the barn.  So it was time-today.  He is 19 months old now. I didn't take any pictures of him with horses because my hands were too busy keeping him safe.  He did enjoy sitting up on them, smiled alot, even hugged Sky while sitting up there.  So here are other pictures.

Amma showed me how this lever moves the bucket, I knew it did something!

We have been talking about wheels and this tractor has big wheels!

I found a big truck 

Hugging Little Foot 

Napping on the way home

Endurance horse mets trail horse

This week I got to go riding with an old friend, K, and her horse Major.  It was great fun to go riding together.  The last time we did this was about a year ago.  We see each other more often than that and I enjoy catching up with K's horse activities on her blog....trails-and-trials-with-major.blogspot.com.  Our horses are different types of movers.  Major is more of an endurance horse, he likes to move out, trots fast, enjoys distance, and new places-just his nature.  Zoe is more of a trail horse, trots but not too fast, distance is okay but not all the time, and new places-well she's getting better at going to new places-just her nature.  So we decided to ride together this week.  Pushed the "edges of both of our envelopes".

We went the back way to Look Out Rock.  Zoe in the lead and she trotted some, but was a bit lazy so I had to get on her case with the spurs.  Major followed and was such a gentleman, he didn't run up on her and gave her some space.  And Zoe didn't mind him being back there.  For 2 horses that don't see each other very often they were being polite to each other.

On the way back Major was in the lead.  K let him trot but not his fastest trot which was fine with Zoe. Zoe had to really move out to keep up and sometimes wanted to break into a lope to stay with him.  But I just said no, pulled just a little bit on the reins and she stayed at a trot.  I wanted her to work on her extended trot...which was slower than Major's "not so fast" trot.  So sometimes Major was way ahead of us, around curves and out of site.  It was okay because I knew K would stop and wait for us.  What was nice was that Zoe was not panicked that Major was out of site and going faster than her.  She just listened to me and we caught up with him.  Major was being very good and listening to K, trotting towards home but not as fast as he probably would have liked.  And stopping to wait for us.

Sometimes we would let the horses walk side by side.  Major was great.  Zoe laid her ears back a few times but for the most part was fine with having him beside her.  The last time I met up with another rider that I don't see too often and we rode side by side-Zoe had a terrible attitude.  But today was much better...mares...can be so finicky.

We decided that we should do this more than once a year.  Maybe we will aim for twice a year!  We don't ride together very often.  Our horses aren't good matches for each others gaits.  But for a few times a year-they can handle it.  And today they handled it wonderfully.

K and Major 

Me and Zoe