Morning rides

The heat has been horrendous around here - topping out over 100 every afternoon. But there is a benefit to that - in my mind at least. E has been motivated to get to the barn to ride before the sun really starts baking everything in sight. She has actually gotten out of bed willingly at 7 a.m. for the past few mornings, and plans to continue with that schedule until school starts. Amazing what a cool breeze can accomplish! And I much prefer mornings at the barn to middle of the day excursions.

At her second lesson with Ruben (Monday) she practiced timing her stops, turns and lead changes. Everything is still being done at a walk, but her communication with Monte is improving dramatically. Ruben also showed her how to assess muscle soreness in Monte and what to do when she finds a sore spot (he had many). By the end of the hour Monte was fully engaged and was listening intently to E's requests. She's finding that she has to have a goal in mind to keep her horse interested; he isn't one to be happy just aimlessly walking around.

Since fair is fast approaching, E is stepping up her riding time and plans to go out to the barn every day that she can. That gives her only about 25 more rides...to perfect her Western, English, trail and halter/showmanship skills. Piece of cake. Ha!

Actually, she's doing really well and is comfortable with most of her skills in Western at a walk. She'll add the trot and canter over the next few rides. She's been ending each ride with some time on the trail course. Monte is learning to think right along with her as they approach the various obstacles. Showmanship is something that E really enjoys doing, so I expect them to click on that skill fairly quickly. That just leaves English...and my hope for them is to just get through the classes. E knows that winning ribbons isn't very likely at this year's fair. And she's okay with it.

Show clothes

Did you know that we have abnormal, mutant bodies? At least that's what I would conclude after trying to buy some English riding clothes for E.

I must admit to spending inordinate amounts of time recently, trying to find the best bargains in breeches, show shirts and show jackets. I am blown away by the high prices for everything! I felt overjoyed to find a jacket for $40 and breeches for $30 - and immediately ordered what I thought would be the correct size. I even went so far as to measure E and compared that to the sizing charts; should'a been accurate, right?

Guess again! Sleeves on the jacket are inches above her wrist and the breeches look small enough to fit R! ARRRGGGGGHHH!

So now it is a race with time to send it all back, get better sizes and hope it all arrives before fair....

Lesson #1: Relax

E had her first lesson with Ruben on Friday. It was hotter than heck out there (about 100) and she wasn't too motivated to ride in the blazing sun, but the anticipation of riding with Ruben and the occasional little breeze got her out into the dusty round pen with her horse.

Immediately Ruben could tell that Monte has lost some of his softness and responsiveness; the horse was taking advantage of his inexperienced rider and backtracking in his training. First off, E was shown how to make Monte lower his head and tuck his nose - a feat that Ruben made look easy but proved to be a bit more difficult for E.

The main lesson that she walked away with was to be more relaxed. E holds herself somewhat rigid and tight, which is communicated through her hands. The horse is less likely to want to work with her because of this. Several minutes were spent showing her how loosely to she should hold herself and then also how quickly she needs to react and release. Simple ideas - hard to put into practice.

At the end of the lesson, Monte no longer looked like a white horse. He was a muddy mess! Ruben invited E to hose him off before we left - which is where we discovered a new type of super scrubby. It was a plastic thing with soft bristles, attached to the hose. And it worked wonderfully! Gotta get one of these:
(and they're cheap too....Yeah!)

Back in the (Western) saddle again...

E threw her ol' Western saddle on Monte yesterday. After a few moments of confusion, they both remembered what they were supposed to do to make it work. One of the hardest things for E was to keep her bum in the saddle while Monte trotted; she much prefers posting to being bounced along. After working on slowing his stride down to a more respectable Western pace, though, she found that his gait smoothed out a bit and she was more comfortable.

It's really cool to watch her change the speed of his gait through her seat alone. The movement of E's hips/pelvis tell him how big of a stride to take. I think it is magic, actually, because the whole process is completely invisible to the people on the sidelines.

Neighbors

Monte got to move to a larger stall/run today out at the horse barn. And he now shares a fence line with Curly.

When E brought the little man to his new run he was very excited and immediately began prancing all around, head and tail held high. Curly was curious and excited about the new neighbor as well, and walked up and down the fence to watch the show.

Monte soon discovered that this new space is big enough to actually get up to a canter - as long as you're able to make a quick turn and immediately slow-down at the end. He also felt that he needed to assert some dominance over the other horses that border a small portion of his run. Again, he held his head and tail up high, snorting and striking out at the fence between him and "his subjects" (as I'm sure he sees all other horses!). They just mildly looked at him and eventually walked away.

E has decided that she wants to try competing in both Western and English at the fair this year. This could be challenging since she's still very much a beginner at English and hasn't ridden Western in many months - and never on Monte!

I think many riding hours are in her near future in order for her to even be marginally ready.

Reconnecting

Spent the morning out at the barn, cleaning both horse and run. Curly has had the last two weeks off and he was full of energy and attitude. I had to re-establish some ground rules - like not getting in my space and waiting until I ask before moving. But he's a smart guy and quickly fell into line.

I had a few minutes in between finishing chores and the arrival of the farrier so we spent some time in the round pen. Curly started off running around like a madman, snorting and kicking up his heels. At one point I was sure he was going to fall because he was cutting the corners at such high speeds, but he managed to stay upright. Curly is terribly out of shape and starting to get flabby. The boy needs to be ridden! After he had burnt off some of his excess energy, we got down to work.

Again, I had to re-establish some expectations but he came around and did his usual good job following my cues. I truly enjoy watching Curly trot around me - he is just so darn beautiful with his glossy coat and flying mane and tail.

Being a predictable soul, Curly played his same old tricks with the farrier: lifting his hoof willingly and then leaning slightly into that same foot making it difficult to finish the shoeing job at hand. I wonder if we will ever be able to fully end this bad habit.

I had a nice visit with the farrier as he went about the business of trimming up Curly's hooves and resetting his shoes.

Overall, a wonderful morning at the barn.

Back on the trail

E's 4-H group had a trail ride at the local reservoir last night. I wasn't sure I would be able to join in the fun; Curly was sedated earlier in the afternoon to have his teeth floated and his sheath cleaned. The poor boy had been so drugged he could barely walk himself over to the trailer to leave the vet's office.

But by the time we were ready to take off for the trail he was clear-eyed and full of energy. I ran him in the round pen for a bit to make sure he was attentive to me (which he was) and then A tried him out in the arena to make sure he wasn't hiding any sneaky tricks up his sleeve. He did challenge her a bit when asked to canter but A brought him back around - no bucking her off! (Although he thought about it!)

Curly was full of forward energy when I mounted. I let him take the lead on the trail, but kept him at a walk. He decided that he really didn't like one of the other horses and tried to bite him at one point. And he decided that a dead skunk and a watering trough were potential horse killers. But other than that, all went well for the first half of the ride.

On the second half he began his head shaking. At first I thought it just might be the bugs, but as I noticed that no other horses were moving around so much I decided that he was actually starting to let me know that he was done. I rode for about 15 minutes with him doing this before I decided to dismount and walk him the rest of the way. And he immediately stopped shaking his head. I'm glad I listened to my gut and got off - even though I felt like a wuss for doing so at the time.

We had to walk about 3/4 of a mile to get to the trailers - with a hill or two on the way. I actually enjoyed doing this; Curly wasn't too sure. I think he thought that he'd have it super easy once I got off, but I kept the pace up and forced him to keep going. We didn't slow down the mounted riders one bit. Very good exercise for me!

E felt great after the ride. She had been worried before we started; her last two trail experiences had been hard - and wet. Both she and Monte were happy this time, and she only dismounted once (to go over the water channel - which she later admitted she probably could have ridden him over). I think it was a good break for him to go out on the trail. They have another lesson with Anna today.

On Sunday's lesson, when Anna asked E to take it up to a canter E had to use her whip to get him to respond initially. And boy did he respond! It was the fastest ride E has ever had. She was totally unnerved by it at first but discovered that she can keep her seat even at high speeds. She later said that she could tell that he had even more speed in him. I bet he'd be fantastic on barrels!

G'pa J is healing from his fall. He's still in a wheel chair but can stand for short bits of time now. He says he's feeling stronger every day.