Wordless Wednesday

 

At last!

 I am finally over the pneumonia and we finally got a warm day! So of course, this happened. 

Never mind giving me the stink eye!

 She must have thought she was retired from riding because she was Not Impressed when she saw the saddle. A lot of evasion techniques were employed. (Hence the churned up snow.) And yes I have had chiro work done on her to rule out physical issues and this saddle does fit her well- except that she is a bit too rotund to do up the back cinch, so I had to remove it. I think I will try for longer back billet straps as being a cheaper option than buying a longer back cinch.

I let her stand tied until she stopped fidgeting, then off we went on a pasture ride to check the fences. 

She was her usual steady self, with a few backwards glances to make sure that she knew where Velvet  was. 

Everybody exhale and say Ahhhh!

It felt soooo good to be back in the saddle again! 

On this ride I used my bosal. She did alright in it but it isn't a good fit. I may look for another one that is a bit lighter. 

Prayer request

 Please send up healing prayers to Kay from 4R Ranch blog  She got in a bit of a wreck and is in hospital. 

No matter how safe we think our horses are, there is always lurking the possibility that something will set them off and we will end up on the ground. And the older we get, the more the possibility of major injury. I have come off of nearly every horse I have owned and ridden for any length of time- the exception being Beamer. Gussie launched me twice, once in 2011 and again in 2019, but now I know her signals and will step off her if she gets ramped up. Other mares I have bought and sold in the last 5 years were sold exactly because I didn't trust them to not blow up. 

You are forgiven, Gussie!

How do you pack your cell phone when riding? I see a lot of people go for having a pouch on their saddle, but that isn't going to serve you if you are on the ground and your horse takes off on you. I have a little pouch that just fits my cell phone that has a string that goes around my neck (thin so it can break if needed) and I tuck it under my jacket or in summer under my t shirt. Another option is a fanny pack or waist pack with a zipper pouch, but again, make sure it isn't going to get caught on the saddle horn. 

I didn't know that cell phones have an SOS option, I thought that was only for Sat phones. 

Horses don't set out to hurt us but they have such a strong survival instinct that we can't say that they never will. It's not if, it's when. It's up to us to do what we can to get  them to trust us over their instincts, and with some horses in some situations, such as Kay's horse, those instincts take over. Last time I came off Gussie, I was pretty much knocked silly and it took me a while to be able to move to get up. Yes, it scared me, and that is why I am so cautious now when I ride. Over the years, there have been 3 times when I have had my brain rattled by hitting the ground. Even with a helmet on. I have not let it stop me from riding, but it has made me much more cautious about where and when I ride. 

Photo from a summer in Creston 6 years ago

Fear is a crippling thing. It is hard to not let it take over, especially as we grow older and more brittle. But we are the masters of our own minds. (Aren't we? ) Fear can be conquered with trust and common sense. We have to trust ourselves first though. That can come with knowledge and education. Give ourselves the tools to deal with our emotions (Education) and know ourselves well enough to not make bad decisions. That being said, I don't advise staying well within our comfort zone, as that can lead to a stagnant mind that allows fear to become dominant. The human race didn't get anywhere being a bunch of shrinking violets; we are an adventurous and inquiring people. Live life to its fullest. Embrace challenges. Challenge yourself!  But do your best to stay safe and don't be foolhardy. 

Up and ride. 

The ride and the invaders

 The little ride I took on Ruby was just a short get-to-know-ya ride. First to check the saddle fit, and second to see how she would be after not having been ridden for 3 months. 

Over the winter she has gotten friendlier; she seems to be a fairly calm and uncomplicated mare. 

Saddling went a lot better this time; she didn't try to take me out with her hip like the last 2 times- mostly because I got after her last time I saddled her. Also, I was able to saddle her from the usual side without her dancing around. So, progress there. 

I had a bridle I wanted to try on her- this is the bridle I used when Ted and I got married on horseback 26 years ago; I had given it to a niece who was riding at the time, and she kindly gave it back to me now that she isn't riding. 

Yes, Ruby, it looks good on you!

I took precautions, wearing my helmet and having Ted there just in case Ruby had any objections. 

At the mounting block, she took a while to stand still, we did some round and round and  and lots of placing her, letting her stand, then moving her out again, until she got the idea that standing where I wanted her was a good idea. 

The weather has been very mild lately, enough so that the snow has softened and it wasn't too icy in the area I wanted to ride- basically, a nice flat area where Ted had plowed the snow up into a nice large pile at one end.... more on that later...

Ruby was good! She sure has a nice ground covering walk, her steering, stopping and back up were all in order.  That was pretty much all I wanted to know with that ride- now it will be all about getting to the indoor arena and really seeing what she's all about. They have obstacle play days there and that will give me good training opportunities and get her connected to me before trail riding season. I also want to do some roping training with her. It should be a good horse year for me!

So- about that large pile of snow...

Whaaaat? There's grass pushed up in that snow I had to check out!

We have a herd of deer who have moved back onto the farm. There are three bucks in that photo. 

Nice long tines for such a young buck, he has 3 tines each side. 

He came down from the snow pile...

and headed for Velvet's hay bale. Along with a couple of does. 

Busted!

I keep my panels around the bales, and a tarp over them which helps to keep them from totally destroying the bales- I have 3 bales set out in my feeding areas. 

From there they jumped over the fence towards the river, but as soon as I went back in the house they snuck back into the yard and headed out to the pasture where the rest of the herd was. There are up to a dozen deer here at any given time. In the middle of the night they come right to the house to lick the ice salt on the sidewalk, or check for grassy nibbles where the snow has melted next to the house. 

I foresee that gardening here is going to be a challenge. 

Sunday Silence

 

First arena ride

 We had a heavy frost this morning and I was quite delighted to see this unique pattern of frost on the hood of our truck.

So dimensional and layered! It would make a great wallpaper pattern.

It warmed up to a beautiful day for taking Sophie to the arena. She was a little reluctant to load, I did have to go in with her at first, and then unloaded her and sent her back in on her own. My trailer is a 2 horse angle haul but she wants to stand facing backwards.  I'm all right with that for now but it might be an issue if I have to haul 2 horses. 

Once we got to the arena, there were only a couple of other people there. I walked Sophie one tour around inside, letting her check out all the signs on the walls, the roping dummy, the barrels in the corner, all no problem.

Then at the mounting block, well this is a work in progress. She went around it several times before stopping at the perfect spot for me. I'm going to have to work on this at home some more. 

For the most part the beginning of our ride was pretty good. She walked out at a good pace, steering was good and she was interested in her surroundings but not silly about anything. Then when the other horses came in she did start getting a bit anxious. She started losing her focus on me and got more concerned with where the other horses were. One horse was acting up and quite ramped up; we just stayed out of her way. Sophie started diving into the bit and tossing her head. I worked on changes of direction and small circles, straight lines and backing to keep her focused but she got to the point where I just stopped her and let her stand still and just watch . This was very much like when we get to that spot at home where she just stops and won't go any further. I had to let her chill out and get her mind back in gear, so I stepped off and lunged her with the reins so she could burn off that anxious energy. Then back to the mounting block  (another round and round session). This time I let her stand for quite a while before riding out. One fellow there, an old friend , was getting on his second horse; a Fjord/quarter horse cross, who was a lovely quiet fellow. Sophie seemed drawn to him, so I asked if we could just ride around the arena side by side with him. 

Bandit is so cute!

That worked really well. Having a nice quiet companion was just what she needed . Sophie relaxed so much that she did that shake horses do that just about shakes you out of the saddle; I had to grab to stay on and it scared her so that she jumped sideways and scooted; I did a one rein stop and was kind of laughing at her. I think she was so relaxed she forgot I was up there!

A couple laps around the arena in that relaxed frame and I called it quits there on a good note. 

She got to soak a bit at the hitching rail while I practiced roping the heels of the roping dummy. 

She loaded better for the ride home too.

Lovely view; if you zoom in you might see the hawk on the right of the photo.

Wednesday is the only day they have open riding at this arena, but there is an outdoor arena just down the road from us that I have to phone and see if they do drop in riding. 

I made arrangements to go riding with Sophie's new friend as soon as the trails are passable. A few more arena rides to get the measure of her and work on some of her issues and we will be trail ready. 

I am pretty sure she hasn't had consistent riding for over 2 years so it's going to take time to get her back in the groove.

Sophie

 Since my husband had to go out of town with the truck for a few days, I wasn't able to haul to the arena on Wednesday. So today was such a nice day I thought I would just saddle up and ride. 

You ready Sophie? Let's go!

I had to work with her a bit at the mounting block to get her to stand still in the perfect spot, and then off we went. 

Well, off we went for a little ways. As soon as we got to the end of the area that Sophie was familiar with from being able to see it from her pasture, she stopped. 

She had a good look at her surroundings. I urged her on. A few more steps and she stopped again.... rinse and repeat.... 

Beamer was hollering at her as she got close to being out of his sight. There were strange things in the bush. (Dirt piles, brush piles, tire piles oh my!) And and and a pond! With light reflecting off the water!!!!

Sigh....

Miss sure of herself in the pasture is not so sure of herself out in the great big ole world. 

I opted not to get in a fight with her about all this. No point in it really. My goal is for her to be confidant in me and for me to be confidant in her. We need to take care of each other. So I got off and led her through all those troublesome things, to a place where we could just chill out and sit for a bit before heading back. 

The pros: She doesn't buck, bolt or spin around when she is troubled .

The cons: How the heck are we going to cover ground if she has to stop and look at everything?

I did some thinking as I led her back- to the round pen. If she won't go forward on the trail, she will have to work back at home.  Since she was a bit pushy in the bridle when I was riding, we went back to the basics. I bitted her up and sent her around. She really doesn't have softness in the bridle at this time, so that is definitely something I have to work on. So nice to be able to use my round pen again now that the ice and snow and mud have gone. 

She was pretty pissy about that at first. Lots of head flinging and pulling on the bit.

Not quite there....

That's better! Just a little slack in the reins. 

I brought out my rope and checked to see how she was with it whirling around her head and thrown on parts of her body. She was pretty good with it so I assume she is used to ropes from her previous cowboy life. 

So it looks like my focus will be not so much in riding until I can get a trail riding buddy to give her  confidence with another horse to follow, instead sending her back to basic training to work on softness and connection. 

I let her stand and soak for a bit before I turned her loose. She was still leaning on the bit at a standstill, so I waited until she gave herself some slack before I turned her loose and took her back to untack and turn her back into her pen. 

That's what I was waiting for! 

One more Sophie tidbit- it's looking like she isn't pregnant after all, her belly has not gotten any bigger in the last 2 months so that must have just been her winter flufffiness. All good! I really didn't need her to have a foal this year. 

Sunday Silence

 

Test ride

 Today was the day! After 3 days of depressing fog, the sun came out today and got me motivated. 

Our snow pack has melted to about half the volume and it is wet and sloppy so my round pen has decent footing. 

It was saddle up and ride time! First a little ground work to make sure Sophie was ok with the footing at walk trot and lope, then I just stepped on to ride. Well, let me clarify that... I led her to the mounting stool and got on on the off side as my left hip doesn't cooperate for stepping up from the ground. 

She stood quietly, I flexed her around both ways and asked her to walk. And asked again, a couple of times. We walked. A few times around, each way, then checking her steering and response to leg pressure; both work. Her back up is serviceable. 

What I found is that she has more whoa than go. and definitely sees no point in going around and around in the pen. 

The good points:

*She never offered to go faster than I asked her to; wasn't "goosey" at all; was light on the rein , and understood leg pressure. 

*Absolutely no buck or silliness.

The needs work points:

*When she sees no point in what I am doing, she just stops. (Perhaps I will need to be more clear and persistent in my ask.)

*When she says no, she tugs on the rein and bobs her head. (My solution is to keep asking; rein first, add leg, and wait for a give then reward the try. )

It wasn't a long ride, just a get -to-know-ya kind of ride

I'm done with this round pen stuff, there's the gate, lets go!

Now it's just a matter of having somewhere to ride and someone to ride with. Once I know Sophie better I won't have any hesitation in riding out on the trails with her by myself, but it's wise to err on the side of caution first and have a riding partner. 

51 weeks

 That's how long it has been since I had this view

Oh those cute li'l ears!

Yesterday was a lovely day, a bit chill, but I have so been longing to ride that I pulled Beamer out of his pen, saddled up and went for my first real ride in 51 weeks. Last time I rode was January 17 2021. (I'm not counting a couple of turns around the round pen on Sophie) We only went a short distance out of respect for his knobby knees, but it felt grand just to ride him again. 

Because I know him so well and trust him I chose him instead of Sophie, who is still an unkown factor when it comes to riding, as well as the fact that there is no good place to ride right now with the knee deep snow. I kept Beamer on the plowed areas, and just wished that I could have ridden for an hour, it felt so good. I love that horse to bits.

Happy boy!

Sophie got quite excited seeing Beamer getting ridden. I hope she is as happy to go to work as he is!

Once I put him back in his pen she paced the fence looking at him.

I heard that strangles is going around the valley (unconfirmed, but rumours usually have some truth to them). So I am reluctant to haul her to one of the indoor arenas here. Fortunately, I am not in a hurry, even though I am a bit impatient with this weather that keeps foiling my plans! Oh well, spring will be here soon.

Sunday Stills- goals

 Usually at the beginning of the year I do contemplate what I will be doing; this year it is rather difficult to plan ahead- for all I know I may be in a Covid concentration camp. However, it's always best to plan for what we want to happen and not worry about how things can go wrong. 

So for this year, I have a goal to get this 

off the saddle rack and on this

as  often as possible!

Kindergarten is in

I opted to ride Beamer instead of leading him for our next outing. Ted led Moondance while I rode- my first ride of the year… yay! Because of Beamer's knee I can only do short rides on him, but I treasure every ride. 

Moondance did fairly well for Ted, but did get a little rambunctious so we opted to take him to the round pen where Ted worked him for a few minutes, long enough for him to start paying attention instead of thinking it was all play time.

So for our next outing I decided that Moondance needs to get handled a bunch more before going for walks again. So he got round pen worked today.

He had to inspect my tools- a flag stick, which he promptly tried to eat, and a big ole raggy tarp I reserve for schooling colts.

I worked on getting him to go forward around me by opening my lead hand and cuing him at the girth area with my stick, and as soon as he moved a foot forward I gave a release of the cues. He caught on pretty quickly and soon was circling me- although he did get a little... ahem...exuberant a few times!

To ask for the stop I bent a bit and looked at the hip, moving the stick to point at the hip, and he very easily caught on that he could move his hip away and face me. Once I had him going nicely both ways and stopping when asked, we moved on to tarp work. 

I like to get them following scary things first, it makes them much less scary and they get quite brave, as you will see:

Everything goes in the mouth.... eye roll...

I flapped it around him, and started rubbing him with it using the approach and retreat method; namely approach it towards his body and retreat with it before he moved away from it. Within minutes, 

he was wearing it. 

After that I folded it up to about the size of a saddle pad and laid it across his back, then slid it off his rump, from both sides. He was better when I was on his left than right, but allowed it to slide down behind him without moving.

I finished the session with a review of the longeing- a couple of half circles and hip yields each way to make sure we had that down pat, and that was it! He was a very good boy. He is quite proud of himself when he figures things out and laps up the praise I give him. 

A few of these short sessions and introducing more sacking out items and obstacles will keep his mind occupied, and should make it easier to take him on walks. 

New Year's Eve

There was enough snow to make a delightful ride today. I saddled up Beamer and we had a lovely peaceful ride. 

Come along for the ride!

 

It was so nice riding a shorter horse! I had to get off to move some fallen branches and it is so much easier to get on Beamer than Gussie!

It wasn't a long ride out of deference to Beamer's bad knee, but enough to lift my spirits and Beamer's too- he just loves getting out. 

Oh... by the way....

 Moondance sends everyone New Years kisses!

Riding day 59

What you do on a hot day

Invite friends to come over for a swim!
 On horseback, that is.

Both of the guest horses are part of the local Therapeutic Riding program. The dog belongs to the lady on the bay horse.

The palomino, Allie,  was worried about the rocks on the river bottom. She isn't the most agile horse! But she figured it out with a little encouragement from the other horses.

I love this bay mare, Kit! She was indifferent at first, but once she realized how refreshing it was she quite enjoyed herself.

We had one person stay on the bank while 2 went in the water- someone had to hold all the cell phones! And take pictures!

Gussie really enjoyed herself! Me too! The water was the perfect temperature. I find that you really have to pay attention to keep your legs forward when riding bareback in the water as the force of movement makes your legs drift back to the horse's flanks. Important to remember as the horse gets into the shallower water and you need to regain your balance.

Swimming! I just grab a handful of mane to keep my butt in place as I also tend to slide back.

I stop her when she gets her footing back so I can adjust my seat.
I'm not much of a swimmer- I can, but it's not my strong suit, so this is for me the best swimming ever!

Meanwhile, Moondance makes progress. He is moving on to the next phase, standing tied. I no longer feed him in the trailer, because he has that all figured out; now his tub is at the hitching rail and the lead is triple wrapped around it. The bonus of halter breaking at a very early age like I do- they long ago learn to give to  pressure, so standing tied comes much easier.

If something bothers him and he tries to leave, there is enough resistance- with give- in that triple wrap to keep him from leaving and it gives me time to grab the rope if needed.

It was put to the test with a little help from Thumper.

Such a brave colt, and not overly reactive. So far, he is winning me over!

Riding day 32