Fun Stuff

Licorice now has an older female role model- an 18 year-old QH mare named Honey. She belongs to my neighbor, and we have been riding together a few times now. Honey is pretty damn bombproof, which is great for building Lic's confidence so we don't spook at every little thing. Anyway, the weather was great, and we went out for about an hour and a half. We were disappointed to find that someone had locked the gate to the BLM land, so we rode the dirt roads. (That really pisses me off, BTW- that's not any one person's land, so don't put a fucking lock on it! We all have a right to enjoy that land.)

Anyway, Lic was pretty good, a little pissy about picking up on a canter when cued- until she saw Honey canter, then she was all too happy to canter along. The way she acts when I cue her, I would suspect a pain issue, because she throws her head up and hollows her back out to avoid the cue... but why, if it is pain related, can she pop into a beautiful, smooth canter when she feels like it? I think it's a training/respect/attitude thing... but the good news is, I have a lesson scheduled tomorrow with a new instructor- fingers crossed, I hope it's better than the last lesson I had.

Lic did have a couple of bucking snit fits- the pad for the Aussie saddle got kind of bunched, so I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt there. But with my trusty Syd Hill Aussie and my all-terrain half-chaps, I was glued in the saddle. I just got my new pad for that saddle anyway, and I'm excited to try it out. I'm going to check with this new trainer on my saddles and how they fit her. And the trainer is bringing some of her saddles too. I'm going to start taking English lessons eventually, if everything works out with this new lady. I am so not a preppy person, but for some reason the prim little English outfits appeal to me, and damn if jumping doesn't look like a blast.

Oh, and Lic is in heat- amazingly, she was sweet and wanting to get all cuddly. I expected mean and pissy. Dutch has been very studdish, walking around with a hard-on and talking at her. And even though Lic has put on her "come-fuck-me" stance, I have yet to witness any real action between the two... hopefully this is over in a couple days, because it's really annoying.

Just do it!

I have been working with Lic, just getting out and riding. The other day it was windy as hell (thank you, April in the high desert) and Lic was acting very retarded. Walk two steps, balk. Walk two steps, balk. Then- Omigod tumbleweed- run runRUN!!! Stop, head sky high, snort. I struggled to not get pissed, and just consitently cued her to keep going after she stopped with light pressure, increasing to heavier pressue, using my blunt spurs. For probably about the first 15 minutes of our ride, this is how it went.

Finally, we got over to the wash, and she relaxed and actually walked without being nagged. It ended up being a really nice ride, and she even cantered a few times with minimal bucking. I think we cantered about 4 times, with 2 total bucks. Woohoo! Getting better. And once was through a field; she cantered slowly, nice and collected, it was great.

Today I rode Dutch and ponied Licorice. It was nice to ride a horse that consistently responds to his cues... well, most of the time. As we got close to home he started being a hothead and not wanting to proceed calmly- couple that with Licorice contstantly stopping to eat grass and after school traffic, and the alst two blocks were really annoying. Once back home, Dutch got to work a bit as a reminder that home does not always = laziness and food. But... working is not a good deterrent for him, being that he likes work. But riding Lic so much made me forget how lovely Dutch's canter is. He's still a little stiff in his back legs, but seems to loosen up with work. Dutch also reminded me that spurs are for lazy horses, not for forward horses. I touched him with one spur, lightly, and like that we went from lazy walk to huge Arabian endurance style trot. Licorice had to canter to keep up.

I so wish I had Dutch ten years ago. I think 25 is a bit old to start endurance riding.

Just for fun... picture time!

Smiley horse. :)

Chunky girl.

*Sigh* Must you take pictures?

Whee!

Eh... Reality check.

Things have been going well with Licorice. We have been making progress... slowly, but it is progress. The biggest issue we're having is respect under saddle... I have trouble being authoratiative enough to get her to listen when I'm on top of an engergetic, 950 pound animals. The other day, after some advice from the I Hate your Horse blog: http://http//ihateyourhorse.blogspot.com/ I decided to hop up and quit being a pussy! We actually made some progress that day... Licorice likes to stop at the "gate" of our "arena" (really just a flat area on some vacant property next door- there's a little trail leading off of it, and she likes to stop there). Well, every time she stopped, I simply cued her to go again, with my legs, voice, and the lunge whip I had. She got pissed, she pulled some of her ear pinning, mini-rearing, bucking bullshit, and she got yelled at and smacked with the whip. This went on for some time... walking was fine... eventually, we got to where trotting was fine. I started out at a posting trot (yes, in a western saddle) to keep her balanced and to set a pace. She slowed down, I kept posting at my pace... eventually we got to where we could trot past her "spot." Even if she slowed down, as long as she was trotting, I gave no "speed up" cues, just posting. Then, I would set a place (different place every time) to stop, praise, and allow her to rest.

Same approach to cantering. I think part of her issue is a balance issue, trouble balancing in a circle, as well as a laziness issue. I kept cueing, smacked when she bucked, until I got a willing canter, buck-free, both ways. This took some time... and it wasn't pretty... we were not collected, she cut through the middle of the arena. No problem. I figure I'll get her willing to work, and then work on refinement.

So, I was feeling pretty good when I hopped on yesterday. Just bareback, and in a halter, in my new half-chaps. Now, I'm not an English person, but I bought an Aussie saddle, which chapped my legs raw in just jeans... and I found a nice pair of Ariat all-terrain half-chaps on clearance. They are suede on the inner leg... which is nice for grip... but apparently not nice enough... LOL.

Really, this is my own fault. I had already been up all night working, then up all day doing errands... so my mind set as I trotted around my property was about equivalent to that of a person with a 3-4 beer buzz. AKA, stupid.

I decided to ask Lic to hop up a small terrace in front of our house. Now, I am admittedly not jumper, though I'd like to take lessons. I have jumped Lic over logs and such on the trail, and I routinely lunge her over this terraced area... it's got to be a foot or less high. No problem, I thought. This will be fun, I say to myself.

Wrong! I lean forward a bit, and Lic takes off like she thinks she's a Grand Prix jumper. She is, in all actuality, a 15 hand paint. But not yesterday... no, yesterday she was a 17 hand warmblood, and it felt that way coming down, too. My floppy, non-jumper self bounced off her back like a bouncy ball... once, twice, three times. I actually don't know if she was bucking or if I was just all over the place. I grabbed for mane, I prayed for a soft landing, I took one final bounce on the ground, and I layed there and whimpered. I rolled over and looked at my horse, who was all too happy to calmy eat weeds, watching me from the corner of her eye.

Well, I can't say I didn't deserve it. I'm lucky, I actually hit my non-helmeted head on our walkway, but emerged from the incident no worse for the wear, mentally. I'll be hobbling on crutches due to a sprained ankle for a few days though. I'm emailing today to start lessons. I'll consider this my first.

A word to the wise...

If you are a nurse, and upon getting home from work, you decide it would be nice to hop on your horse bareback for a few minutes, don't do it while still in your scrubs. The really do not provide any grip. Now, I know this seems like common sense, but I thought I'd share just in case there are any other stupid nurses out there.

The good news was, Licorice was an angel. I did some ground work with her, practicing sidepassing (for some reason she sidepasses much better to the right than to the left) and also trying to get her to leave her front end where I put it. She likes to always turn and face me... this was recently a topic of debate on FHOTD. I personally do not think it is a problem for her to face me when stopped or when "whoa"ing on the lunge line, as long as she doesn't try to "crawl into my lap," as it was stated. And yes, she likes to do this. We are at a point where when she even shifts her weight towards me, a sharp look and a flick of the leadrope will change her mind.

Anyway, I digrees. This morning I worked on moving the forequarters. She yields the hind great, but she's not as automatic with her front end. When we got to where she would stay put for a good 5 seconds, I called it quits. This will definitely be a frequent lesson.

Anyway, I hopped on bareback, in my well worn and too-big scrubs... we walked all over the paddock with a minimum of attitude... I mean, there's still attitude but it's getting to where it's manageable. But stupid me, I decided to ask for a trot, which is normally no problem... but as my ass had no grip to it, being that my clothing was a little inappropriate, I proceeded to flop all over her back like a toddler. Oops. (Don't get me wrong, I'm not entirely blaming a wardrobe malfunction... if my seat were better, this probably wouldn't have been an issue).

But Licorice did exactly what she should have done... she kept trotting, because her retarded rider had told her to and hadn't asked her to stop. This, of course, didn't help my foolish ass up there scrambling for balance... but the point is, she was a good girl, and when I finally righted myself, I stopped her and told her so. Then we finished our little jaunt at a walk. Ears pricked forward and all.

Follow the Leader

I had an "aha!" moment today.

Watching the Parelli Level 1 stuff has made me think about some things. First of all, I think there is probably something valuable to get out of just about any training program. Well, one of the points that was made is that your horse gains respect for you and considers you to be his "safe place" (ie: not the barn, or his stall, or the pasture) when you are able to protect him/her from other horses. This makes sense- you are proving yourself to be the boss of other horses, so your horse assumes you are alpha above all horses, and is less likely to challenge you.

I realized I hadn't been doing much with Dutch because a) he was out of commision for a few months and b) he's not my main riding horse. Being semi-retired, I figured it wasn't a big deal if he got a little rusty. But I realized... what if it's a big deal to Licorice? I mean, I expect him to retain some basic ground manners- do not run me over, do not try to snatch hay out of my arms, stay out of my space, etc. But I hadn't been actually focusing any groundwork on him.

So this morning, I was playing some of the Parelli "seven games," which are really no different than any other training method, much as they may claim it is. The Driving and Porcupine games are yielding to indirect and direct pressure. The Yo-Yo game is practice backing and coming back in. I will say that watching the discussion about how your horse may respond to these has been helpful though. I worked with Licorice for about 10 minutes, and then decided to do the same with Dutch. It's amazing how unresponsive he has gotten! He doesn't "argue" like Licorice, he just tunes me out. I had to get pretty assertive with him to drive him back and yield his hind- and forequarters. He finally started listening, responidng, licking, and chewing, but it took some doing.

Interestingly, I stole glances at Licorice, and she was watching us intently. When I did some leading practice and jogged Dutch around the yard at a trot, Licorice looked postiviley jubliant. She ran around bucking and farting. I'm not sure exactly what that means, but I'm pretty sure it means something. I wonder if she had an "aha!" moment too?

I rode Lic yesterday and she was so good! We walked, trotted, cantered. She did spook a couple times... it's funny, because we passed two big dogs and she was fine, but she spooked at this yard with 4 little ankle biter dogs. Then I stopped to talk to my neighbor (the one with the three horses) about riding together sometime... well, she was having some kind of family get-together, and there were like 7 dogs running around, and some guy playing football... it was too much for Lic, she attempted to wheel around and bolt... but once I stopped her, I had her stand there until she calmed down, and she did fine. We are still having that issue where she bucks going into the canter sometimes- I have found that pushing her through it is more effective than stopping and trying again, but that, of course, means I ahve to sit out the bucks, and I think I need to work on my seat. I didn't fall or anything, but talk about spanking yourself on the ass... lol. Once I consciously told myself I HAD to lean back or I WOULD fall off, it was fine- I got my balance and Lic cantered instead of bucking. So I think her issue might be as much with me as anything else. I also worked with her on the scary white cement on my neighbor's driveway. She put two feet on it, and we're going to work again every day this week, even if I don't have time to ride.

I went to a local horse show on Sat. I could only stay for the morning classes, which were English, but it is super beginner friendly. I'm out of town for next month's show, but I'm thinking about entering in the April show. They had some weanlings (I guess soon to be yearlings now) on the farm... and I fell in love with one. It was a buckskin, and he had a splint on his leg and a shaved spot on his neck where it look like he had an IV before or something... anyway, he came up to see me over the fence, but he was very hand shy... poor baby. But he gave me several nuzzles/kisses... I thought I would die from the cuteness. Hopefully in two month's time we can enter the WP walk/trot or novice classes.