Peeling back the layers- Day 2

 Day 2 we switched saddles to my little saddle as it's the only one I have that the stirrups will fit Shayla- the other 2 saddles it's very difficult to shorten the stirrups much.

Everything was a review of the first lesson, with Sophie showing some improvement on not changing directions unless asked, and a better back up. 

She was also softer with her whoa and face up.

However, once Shayla rode her she showed just how much work she needs to get soft in the face; she really isn't giving to the bit at all. Riding her with a loose rein and using a neckrein and leg works, but if something happened (think bear , bicycle, dirt bike, deer etc. etc. ) you really wouldn't be able to give her support and direction . You wouldn't be able to keep her focused on her rider and she would feel that she is left to her own devices (bolt, rear, whatever) whereas if you can connect with her through the reins you can steady her and keep her mind from leaving. So this is a very important part of her ongoing training. 

So my program definitely will have to be consistent in getting her to figure out how to find the softness, whether it's bitting her up on the ground, or to my hands when riding. 

The other thing we figured, is that so far I have been "sneaking" rides on her. Which basically means that I have just been riding without pressuring her to do anything out of her comfort zone, just getting along with her and she calls the shots. I do know better! But riding by myself on a horse I don't really know was testing the limits of my old lady bravery. So it was awesome to have Shayla work her, because now we know the limits and boundaries Sophie has set and have a plan on how to get her past them.

Peeling back the layers -day 1

 This last week has been one of discovery for me and Sophie. There were some things I suspected about her that were confirmed when Shayla started working with her; she gave her three good sessions in the round pen that pinpointed the holes in her training- or, should I say the lack of training. 

Day one was mostly about finding out where she needed the most work. The first level is her tightness of body. I mentioned a while ago about how Sophie flinches when being touched; that issue is also part of her unwillingness to stand still when being brushed or saddled . So to work with that, Shayla  worked on desensitizing her to touch, continually popping her with her hand until the hardness left her muscles; taking the saddle pad and throwing it up on her and all over her. It took a while for Sophie to relax. 

For this issue, I now have built into my program for her, making sure that we deal with the tightness before moving on to any next step. Which means not saddling her when she's tight- more on that when we get to day 3. 

In the round pen, on the longe line Sophie was trying to do things on her terms; especially trying to turn back and change directions when being sent around to the right.  Also, she doesn't have the concept of a verbal whoa built into her automatic reactions; Shayla had to take ahold of her when her verbal and body language whoa was ignored. The other thing during longeing was when Shayla brought her in to stop in the center, that she has no concept of personal space (except her own) and got pushy.

Tight body

For these issues, it's a matter of just being consistent with what we are asking of her, not allowing her to turn back and change eyes and  building a good solid whoa, as well as reminding her to not crowd me. 

Getting it figured

Then there was the back up; she pretty much ignored any subtle or soft cues for a back up, so once again Shayla had to get big to get the message across. The other side of this, is that Sophie will back up when you walk up to her, instead of standing still, so to remedy this we ask for forward movement even if it means a sharp pull on the lead rope. The first few times this happened, Sophie threw up her head and half reared, so this is definitely something that needs to be dealt with. Eventually she stepped forward on a loose lead. 

The next thing was bridling and longeing her off the bridle, as well as bitting her up to each side. This is to help her find how to be soft in the face. Sophie showed a lot of resistance, especially to the right. When I trail rode her a couple weeks ago, I found that she was easy to ride on a loose rein, but if I had to put contact on the bit for any reason she was what I call hard mouthed- no give to the bit, just pushing into the bridle and tossing her head. 

As we progressed through the lesson, we felt that her training level was about what we would expect from a two year old who was just starting in training. But with an 11 year old mare, she isn't as mentally fragile as a young horse, so we could push her a little harder as needed. I feel that her original training didn't include a lot of finesse, and that she wasn't asked for any softness during the time she was ridden by her former owner, so all this is new to her.

As far as her personality goes,  this is what we concluded:

Closed minded/tough minded

Dominant but not confidant

Pushy but not brave

Owning this mare is a learning curve for me. I am so used to the more willing, easy to train type of horses that this is good for me to have to learn ways of building confidence and connection with Sophie. I feel that she is a good horse who just hasn't had the foundation to really shine.   

Sunday Silence

 

Oh Thumper

 

The manx cat was hanging around our yard a couple of days ago; I thought he left but apparently not. It was raining pretty hard when I let Thumper out, and this is what I saw when he came back in. This is about his 4th fight with That Cat. He has a bunch of scratches in his ears as well as the punctures, and a couple gashes above his left eye as well as a very sore tail base that he won't let me explore. That Cat has worn out his welcome and I will be chasing his kitty butt out of my yard whenever I see him. Cat persona non grata!

Cats

 Thumper and Foose have been together so long they are like an old married couple. Foose is 13 now and Thumper will be 12 in August. 

They do a lot of things together. 

Sometimes Foose comes complaining to me if Thumper hogs the food bowl, but it's usually Foose who hogs it!

Sometimes they share sleeping space, but mostly it's Thumper on the bed and Foose on his own bench.

Kitty paws! 😍

Thumper is the cuddlebug of the two. Always happy to take over my lap!

Foose is the you may pet me but only for three seconds type.

Thumper is the security guard . He is always scrapping with any cat that comes into his territory. The latest one is this Siamese Manx - very pretty cat but still intact so he is flexing his territorial muscles. He lives 2 doors down.

Foose mostly hangs out in the house these days, but with the nicer weather he is a kitty-in-and- out! 

Yeah? So what! Thumper can do all the work!

Now that we don't have dogs, we are very thankful to have two such lovely and personable cats .

Pressure and release

 Here is a blog I found about about through Warwick Schiller, I have linked to it on a post that opens up a new concept (to some people like me) about pressure and release that goes beyond what we have always been told concerning horse training. 

https://equusoma.com/connection-before-concepts/

If you are interested, here is the video in which Warwick talks about the concepts in the blog post and shows how it works. 

I have been working with this concept with Sophie and it has really helped me begin to understand her. Sophie is a different type of horse from any I have owned before. Working with her has really pushed my limits of understanding  how to connect with a horse who really doesn't care to connect at first. 

We are making progress. 

Shayla is here this week, so she is helping me with Sophie. It's wonderful to have someone else's perspective and expertise.  We are discovering layers of Sophie's personality. I will go into some of that in another post when I can figure out the words to express it. 

Wordless Wednesday

 

Spring rain

 As soon as the rain stops and the ground dries, it will be time to mow the lawn for the first time this year.

 All the perennials are growing like crazy, including the helleborus that I planted experimentally. It seems to love this cooler weather. 

There be snow in the high country though, so not planting time yet!

Beamer got his first turnout yesterday; only about a half hour so the spring grass didn't affect him too much. 

Not letting that ole arthritis bother him

Sophie is still in a strong heat and Beamer was quite excited to be closer to her; she was kitty corner to him in her own turnout field. Thank goodness for electric fences!  Although next time I won't tempt fate, I will separate them by putting Sophie in the foaling pen when Beamer gets his turnout. That stallion roar he has echoes through the valley. In this video is just a mild version of it.

I am thinking of hauling Sophie to the arena this week and seeing how well she does  with roping the dummy off her. Also it's time to see how she does with the trot and lope, and to work on softening her face. 

Happy Easter

 This was another week of not getting much accomplished. A trail ride planned for Saturday fell through, and I only did a little ground work with Sophie during the week. Partly that was because she came into heat again- a stronger heat this time, so I gave her a few days to get over it. 

Also it was Holy Week, so that's where a lot of my focus was. Easter Sunday is a rainy day for us, as we snuggle up with the fire going and a ham in the oven.

I hope you all have a blessed Easter spent with family, friends and good food for this wonderful Feast Day. 

At long last.....

 I got to go on a trail ride. The last one I went on was a solo ride on Gussie on Dec. 18, 2020. 

It was a blustery day, gusty and chilly winds here at the farm, but I figured since my destination was in the forest we would be fairly protected from the worst of it. 

I was invited by Bandits person, Lyn, to go on a trail ride with the guy (Dave) who did all the saddle work for me. We all met up at Dave's at 1 pm . I saddled Sophie before hauling her, she did take a minute to load (I had to step in with her) and when I unloaded her at our destination I could see that her neck was sweaty. I didn't have her tied in; sometimes with nervous haulers it's better to let then find their own preferred spot in the trailer. 

My work at home with the mounting block paid off; she was easy to position. We went into the round pen (all 3 of us) and strolled around in there to get a feel for how Sophie was ; the two gents I was riding with were very kind and willing to make this a good experience for Sophie, as we had no idea how she was going to behave.  They looked after us! 

Sophie was pretty looky but not spooky, just looking at everything and considering everything, just the way she is at home. So off we went! The route took us down a gravel road for a couple of kilometers and then up onto old logging roads and through the bush. 

I was quite surprised that Sophie wanted to be in front! 

The start of the ride, going down the gravel road. Looking at the water in the ditch.

We encountered a couple of vehicles coming towards us, who very kindly stopped as we went by, including one who was running two dogs behind them; they popped the dogs into their truck as we went by. Very considerate!

Once we got off the road and onto the brush trails I asked Sophie to hold back a bit so Dave could lead. 

Sophie, for the most part, was ok with riding beside him but definitely didn't want to be at the back of the pack.

That turned out ok though, because Bandit preferred to tag along at the rear of the pack for the most part. 

We rode for about two hours. I have to say, I was quite impressed with Sophie 💗

She was steady, marched out with confidence, looked at everything but didn't get too concerned. One time she deked to the left when she was surprised to see a culvert , but it wasn't a huge jump, just a couple quick steps left. She handled the terrain well, including a lot of standing water on the backroads. 

That was just one of the long puddles we went through. That one had hidden slippery ruts that had the horses slipping a bit, but she handled it well. 

Overall, I have to say I was really pleased with Sophie. I felt safe and comfortable on her. We do have to work on getting her soft in the face, but that will come with time and schooling. 

As we got back down onto the road, she got looky again as we passed by dwellings that had a lot of stuff to see. Back at the trailer, I tied her to the side of it, and went to look at some of Dave's horses. When I got back to her I could see that she had pulled back; she was completely out of sight of all the horses so I think she pulled because of not wanting to be alone. Another thing we have to work on. 

This time for the trip home I tied her in the trailer; facing rearward seems to be her spot of choice. 

Overall, it was a great day! And, I have been invited to come ride there anytime. 

Sunday Silence

 

Clean pens

 We are corral cleaning this week, so Beamer got turned out in the round pen while his pen got scraped. 

Much to his delight.

Now that's a roll back!

The pens are all cleaned, now we have to haul out the older piles for garden compost and allow the newer piles to age another year. 

Another blog

 If you all love good photos hop on over to http://www.greenhillfarmblog.com/

Ruth is a blogger in Ireland who takes amazing photos of her farm life with sheep and border collies. 

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.

Let's ride!

 The last day or two we were hammered with driving rain, sleet, a bit of hail and strong gusty winds. Not conducive to doing anything with the horses. I did a lot of online stuff with the Warwick Schiller program I signed up for, now just waiting for the winds to die down so I can put it into practice. 

A lot of this program is about discovering where the horse's mind is and ways to get their attention on you, and to let them know that you are aware of what is going on with them. 

It's actually simple, and less is more. 

Today, the weather calmed down a bit, still a bit stormy but only in patches. This afternoon I saddled up miss Sophie to see if we could get any farther away from home. I used the advance and retreat program that I first learned many years ago from following the teachings of John Lyons, and now many others . 

Ride out a ways, turn and circle part way back; ride a little farther, turn and circle, etc. etc. It did get some nice forward from Sophie. 

We headed down to the other side of the pond this time, the area where I have walked her in hand plenty of times. 

And then we hit the wall of her comfort zone. This reminds me of the song lyric, Don't go down to the woods today...

I think part of what is going on with her is that there is a lot of activity down on the dyke, which is slightly visible through the trees . Lots of dog walkers and people riding. And this mare is very alert to her surroundings. She's confidant when I am leading her, but not so much when I'm riding her. At this point we just sat and dwelled a bit, then headed back. 

As we headed back we were hit with a squall of wind and sleet. Some horses would get all prancy and snorty, but not miss Sophie. She just bent her neck into it and steadily marched into the wind and sleet. Good girl Sophie!

As I turned her into her pen (after a bit of hand grazing) she went on full alert staring down towards the dyke. Beamer did too, so I knew there was some kind of activity going on. 

I hung out for a bit and watched. It was worth a few photos ops! My brother in law gave me a little pocket camera, a Canon Power Shot S50  that I had with me so I managed a couple of action shots. 

Tail up and trotting and snorting!

Aaaand airborne!

Eventually even I could see what was going on down there- there were some girls loping their horses along the dyke. 

I am really looking forward to tomorrow- we are loading up and heading to the indoor arena!

Spring stuff

 Another quiet week here. But busy with non horse stuff like getting my gardens cleared of last years dead branches, dividing some perennials, raking the barnyard debris from putting chaff down on the icy winter paths, and raking poo piles away from the buildings and fencelines to prepare for corral cleaning in the next few days. 

I worked Sophie a couple times in the round pen, and decided to switch to using a Billy Allen mouthpiece snaffle on her, thinking that the single jointed snaffle was more distracting to her; she seemed to be much more comfortable in the Billy Allen so I will ride her in that until I feel she is ready for a curb bit. 

I was planning on riding her the day after our stroll, but she came into a pretty strong heat and was so focused on Beamer that I thought it would be pointless to work on her issue with leaving with that strong of a distraction. Discretion is the better part of valor! 

Ted is back now so I can haul away from here to ride - I'm sure that will help. 

Sunday Stroll

 

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.