Freaky Friday

The view from UK: Jean on Candy.

Today dawned overcast and smelling like rain. Normally Fridays at the barn are fairly quiet, but today we had three barn girls. So I helped them feed and tried to keep them out of trouble.

Jean and I were planning on going on a trail ride with Stef for 10am. I decided to take UK, Jean took Candy (a very opinionated paint mare) and Stef was taking Jett (a QH gelding with a been there, done that attitude). We had a pretty good ride! UK and I went farther then we'd ever gone before. I think it was at least 5 miles round trip. Over bridges, through water and up (and down) rocky hills.

After we got back and put the horses away, I grabbed the barn girls and the golf cart. We had a mission to put the jumps back up in the back field, as it had just been mowed. I have to say that I felt 16 again driving the golf cart through the woods with three chattering tweens riding along.

After a through checking of the field for holes, we proceeded to set up the jumps. I then took on the monumental task of teaching the girls how to count strides. Needless to say, when I asked them how many 3ft steps to take for a 6 stride line and one of them answered "10" I wondered about the future generation.

The best part of the afternoon was when we were done with the jumps. Stef and Jean had walked up, and rode back with us. So six of us in the golf cart, laughing and trying not to fall out. The poor golf cart needed to be pushed up one hill, but we all arrived safely at the barn in the end. It was a lovely bit of happiness amid all the craziness that's been going on lately. (I refuse to discuss barn drama on my blog)

Tomorrow I plan on jumping UK, hopefully. We'll see!

My ankle needed a break, so I walked the last bit home. Torn ankles suck.

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Heat, Trail rides and torrential rain.

Oh yeah baby, gotta love the crazy New England weather! There was a rumor that a tornado touched down in the middle of the state, but I don't know if that's true.

Anyhoo! The heat this past week was killer. It reached 100 degrees one of the days, and the humidity never let up. I rode UK bareback on Tuesday, as it was too hot for a saddle. I didn't get to ride him again till Saturday morning because of the heat.

Friday night my phone starts buzzing that I have a text message:

Jean: trail ride in the morning


Me: Not if it's this hot. UK's a mess just being in the paddock


Jean: 730 am


Me (my phone didn't get me the new text till 11pm): Just got your text with the time. I'll try to make it. Just got home.


Jean: Call me in the am. let me know.


Me: Ok

So I am not a morning person, never have been. I think God thought it would be decidedly funny to make me a horse person who's not a morning person and allergic to horses, hay, mold, grass, dust, pollen, etc. I bet every time I get a rash from touching my horse he/she falls out of his/her chair laughing.

Anyhoo, I called Jean in the morning and we both dragged our sorry selves to the barn. We were tacked up by 8:30am and heading out. UK was a nice mis-mash of western and english tack. My western pad again, western bridle, rope halter with leadrope attached, ear net, english saddle and english breastplate and a borrowed pair of bell boots. Jean was taking Rebel this time.

Now then, I had a theory that the reason UK tries to turn around is because walking gives him too much time to think. So the plan was to trot a lot and maybe canter.

I really think us horse people should know better by now... plans never work. Plans are made to be ruined....

The bugs were horrendous! The sky was cloudy and it was humid with almost no breeze. After trotting for awhile I looked at Jean and we both agreed to canter. We cantered, and cantered, and cantered. Uphill, downhill, through the woods and past water. It was wicked. Jean and I just going down the trail, laughing and joking around. We eventually walked and let our poor ponies cool down. Our calm was short lived however as the bugs then swarmed us again. A good chunk of our ride home had to be trotted, in order to try to keep the bugs at bay.

UK lead through the water on the way home again. Jean said I should trot it, and I told her no, he'd jump it. She laughed at me and I reminded her that I want him to be an eventer, he needs to go through water, not over it!

UK got a nice long hose down when we got back to the barn. I'd ridden with super long stirrups again, and my ankle was pissed at me for doing that. Next time I need to ride with normal length stirrups if I want to be able to walk the next day.

I rode UK bareback Sunday night again, and I plan on riding him tomorrow. It's been raining the last two days. The cooler weather is nice, but I'm getting sick of being soaked...

Adventure!

Saturday I went out on a trail ride without UK, instead riding his pasture mate, Rebel. Rebel's a nice little chestnut AQHA gelding who has a wonderful unflappable attitude. The goal was to accompany my friend Jean while she tries to get her mare, Maggie, to cross water.

We put UK's rope halter on under Maggie's bridle and clipped a long cotton lead rope to it to have ready to pony her with in case of trouble. Maggie is smart and had been pretty brave so far, so we weren't expecting too much trouble.

It was a bit hot out so I left my gloves at the barn as I was riding Rebel western. Didn't think much of it, silly me. Horses didn't care about the tractor tedding a field full of hay, and everything seemed to be going well. We got to the river crossing and Rebel decided to be reluctant which didn't help Maggie. She ended up being scared and tried to turn around in a spot too tight to do that. Jean ended up falling off, getting a horn in the side in the process. Everyone was ok though, Maggie just having scraped some hair off a stifle.

We decided to try a different plan of attack and headed for a water crossing that was shallower and with less of a bank leading to it. We could come back and try the river another time.

Maggie didn't want to do that either, but we had better footing and this time I had the lead rope to pull her along. That's where me not wearing my gloves comes in.... I got some killer rope burn when Maggie panicked about getting her feet wet. I didn't let go however, and she soon followed us pretty calmly. We rode farther up the trail till she had forgotten about the water and then turned around and headed home.

This time she tried to jump the water and ran up poor Rebel's butt. That wouldn't do, so we made her cross the water a couple more times till she walked through it calmly without leaping or charging.

Pleased, we headed home. Jean and I chatting and the horses walking happily. I always tell my students that no matter how relaxed they are or how much they trust their horse they should always be prepared by having their weight in their stirrups and being balanced in their seat. I practice what I preach, and a good thing too! I clapped my hand against my thigh and Rebel jumped out of his skin, making Maggie do the same. Jean and I laughed at the silly horses.

Chuck came out that evening and put shoes on UK.

So this afternoon Jean texts me that she wants to trail ride again, and I agree to come up to the barn and go with her. This time I tack up UK, borrowing Rebel's western saddle to make my life easier (too hot for half chaps!). We both make sure to have halters on under our bridles and I clip the long lead rope to the saddle.

UK's great about going down the driveway, and has no problem with the assholes who fly past us in their cars, never bothering to slow down. His first fearful bit was about a root that resembled a snake that we needed to step over. He'd get real close and then chicken out. So Maggie then lead and he followed her over it. She spooked at a bird and he stayed calm which made her feel better.

Eventually he got nervous and tried to turn around. Jean ended up having to pony us behind her, as UK would go forward when ever she'd pull him along. When he was feeling brave he'd want to be in front but have to settle for being alongside Maggie. When Maggie got scared, UK would be brave and visa versa. When he'd get scared he'd drop back and hide his head behind Maggie, it was pretty funny.

Then we got to the little water crossing. Maggie and UK both had a heart attack. Jean and I decided one of us would have to get off, and she was nice enough to volunteer (her horse is shorter). She lead UK and I pulled Maggie behind us by leading her with her reins. Jean got back on and we rode farther up, UK occasionally needing to be ponied when he got scared.

We turned around once they both were behaving well and headed back for the water. UK didn't like it but he responded when I told him to lead across as Maggie was scared again. Without needing to be led, UK stepped slowly and carefully through the water, and Maggie followed!

We're both pretty proud of our ponies! We may be a bit crazy to take two green horses trail riding but it worked in the end! UK and Maggie seem to balance each other pretty well, as they're both scared of different things. UK actually led the rest of the way home once we got towards the end of the trail.

I'll probably give him tomorrow off it's too hot and then work him in the ring on Tuesday. If it's not too hot I'll ride him in the ring tomorrow. He got a whole week off, so he'll be fine. We only walked today, as we wanted them to just relax.

Oh, I didn't forget my gloves today! ^_~

Progress!

So Sunday afternoon I girded myself for war... I mean  for a trail ride. It was pretty hot, in the upper 80's but there was a breeze to help balance it out. I brought one of my western saddle pads up, as it's made to let the horse's back breath. So I saddled him up with my english saddle on the western pad, breastplate, rope halter under his western bridle with the clip on reins and a lead rope clipped to my saddle. Ample fly spray was applied and an ear net put on.

Now because it was so hot I was in denim capris and flip flops. Yes, I wear flip flops to the barn. I'm a bad, bad example. I changed into my Ariat terrains and then put my half chaps on my bare legs and over the bottoms of the capris. Felt a bit funny but it was better then overheating.

UK actually stood to let me get on after a few tries. This is one of the other problems we've been having, as he's been too anxious to stand still if we're not in the ring. I double checked my cell phone was in my back pocket and then off we went.

Our goal was to ride down the driveway and then the road for about a 1/4mile to meet Selene on her horse Marty and Sylvia who is leasing her other horse, Romeo. We would then attempt to trail ride. We made it down the driveway and UK didn't really give me any attitude tell I asked him to step out on the road. We'd ridden down the road in the past, but at Betsy's.

I'm not going to bother going into detail, I rode him for a bit on the road then decided to get off when I noticed exactly how much poison ivy was growing on the side of the road (I'm highly allergic!). I then dismounted and walked till we met up with the others.

UK had some attitude/fear issues when I went to mount him again, and I ended up getting off again. I hand walked him down the trail a ways and then got on again using a handy stone wall.

About halfway into the trail ride a lightbulb blinked in UK's little brain. Maybe this trail riding thing wasn't a form of torture, maybe it could be FUN. He was still nervous most of the ride, but started to trust me and the other horses a bit more that we weren't leading him to his death. We rode over a wooden bridge, through the woods, up and down rocky hills, through water multiple times and even behaved when Romeo started getting fresh. We trotted a lot, which was harder for me then it was for him as I had my stirrups extra long in order to be more secure while walking. We cantered too, nice forward canter and a nice collected canter. He didn't care if I was ducking branches while we cantered either. We even did a bit of canter downhill.

UK was willing to keep going even once he started getting really tired. His natural curiosity was starting to outweigh his fear by this point. When we reached the trail head next to Selene's I got off so he could cool down on our walk back up the road to the barn. That was when I noticed he was missing a front shoe. Damnit! The farrier was already supposed to be coming out as he'd grown so much foot that he was due a couple of weeks earlier then usual.

UK was perfectly calm for the walk home, and didn't even realize that was where we were going until we were half way up the driveway to the barn. He can be so blond sometimes.

Overall I learned some important things about UK.

1. Once he gets over his fear he's all in.
2. He is pretty sure footed, not as sure footed as Jake was, but still more sure footed then the average horse.
3. The SmartBug-Off I've been feeding him works! The other horses were being swarmed by deer-flies every time we slowed down, while UK and I never had  more then 2 bothering us, if any.
4. He will stop is asked even when excited when following other horses.

And I learned that I'm in better shape then I could have hoped. I had no problem staying off his back while cantering and I still had energy by the end of the trail ride. I still have a long ways to go, but it's good to know the muscles are still there and still can do what I need them to. The only problems I had were due to trying to deal with my too long stirrups while trotting super fast.

Well the farrier will be out Saturday. Till then UK's been having a little vacation, only broken up to re-wrap the shoeless foot every other day. And of course because my horse is unrideable the weather has been awesome yesterday and today. Oh well!

Insomnia makes for late night updates

My husband has been in Maine since Tuesday morning. Guess who hasn't gotten any decent sleep since then? I'm wide awake at the moment, I know I need to sleep but my body isn't cooperating. I don't begrudge Neil his vacation, but I do look forward to his return home tomorrow.... or should I say later today. Heh.

UK has pretty much settled in at the new barn. He's got all sorts of new girlfriends and hates being parted from them. I think I'm going to have to do something about that soon, as his screaming for them while I try to brush him is getting old.

He's also done with the doxy, thank goodness. Wednesday was his last dose of the yellow stuff, which is good as the coffee grinder was about to bite the big one.

His energy level is still recovering, but otherwise he's starting to get back to normal. Each time I ride him he gets just a little bit better, and that's all I ask for. We've pretty much stuck to the ring, as I wanted to get his confidence back before we tried anything new. This approach seems to be working, as we finally made it down the driveway bareback last week without rearing. He struggled and we doubled back a few times but in the end we made it all the way. I'm hand walking him everywhere too, forcing him to go new places constantly.

Undersaddle he's been pretty excellent. Like I said before, he doesn't have much energy but while he has some we make the most of it. The ring at the new barn is much larger then the one at Betsy's, which is nice as we can really work on going straight at the canter now. He tends to be less balanced when tracking right, so we've been doing a lot of work that way, just trying to keep him even. It's starting to pay off!

Before I get on him we play with a couple of the jumps in the ring. UK didn't want to jump some barrels so I started walking over them and making him follow me. We do the same thing with the big round plastic brush jump. Now he'll pop over them from a standstill without a second thought.

UK viewing the barrels we just jumped.

Thursday all that prep work paid off, as UK jumped the barrels undersaddle from the trot, twice. We trotted up to them and he stopped the first time, got smacked on the butt and then we tried again. He almost chickened out again, but then sucked it up and made a huge effort and jumped them like they were four feet high. I was prepared for this, and stayed with him no problem. Huge praise was given and I let him walk for a couple of minutes before trying again. The second time was much smoother, he still slowed down and jumped big but with less hesitation. More praise was given.

Those two big efforts wiped him out of energy so completely that he wasn't able to trot a crossrail afterwards without knocking it over. Because of that I was nice and gave him yesterday off to recover. 

I rode him tonight... I mean last night, and planned on just letting him hack around and chill. Somebody had moved everything in the ring to practice for a trail class so we played around the obstacles. One of them was a small wooden bridge that someone had put the flower boxes on it's sides to form rails. I figured UK would be terrified of this. He really wasn't. A bit cautious but he followed me right over and even walked over it with very little urging once I was on him. 

The mailbox however was terrifying and he seriously considered fleeing when I stopped him next to it and opened it from his back. Maybe he thought there was a tarp hidden inside it? Hehe! 

I pretty much rode him on the buckle the entire time, letting him have a break from all the bending and flexing we normally do. He cracks me up, as he can be so balanced on the left lead that he'll be cantering with his nose touching the ground, hind end engaged and going straight all at once and with no urging from me. Can't do that on the right lead as well yet, but we'll get there.

Because he was so good I took him for a hand walk in the woods to find the field out back where Sally said there was jumps. UK ranged from being excited and wanting to explore to leaning on me because he was nervous. Silly horse needs to make up his mind! He had no problem climbing over the small stone wall or a few fallen branches. Good to know.

Tomorrow... um, I mean later today I'm going to possibly try to go trail riding again. I'm really hoping he'll be ok just to go for a nice long walk. I'm sick of being in the ring and I know once he gets over his fear he'll love being on the trails!

So cross your fingers, knock on wood and say a prayer that UK decides to be brave and good for me!