I know, it's been forever...

But summer is busy and between having houseguests, being out of town, and just generally doing stuff this blog fell on the backburner. So hopefully I'll get back on track here.

Mostly I've just been trail riding, and trying to convince Licorice that certain things are just not going to kill her. The two main things we're working on right now are water and cows.

We were making some progress on water. I had gotten her to where she would cross puddles and such. Well, back in July, I ran into a couple of people trail riding out on state land. Being that we had had monsoon rains for about a week straight, there were some large puddle (read: ponds) that had formed. Well, my new riding buddies had horses that just loved water, and plowed right in to one. Licorice offered to follow, and even though I had a saddle on trial that I was using (a $900 saddle no less) I figured that since the water wasn't quite up to the other horses' bellies, it would be fine. After all, I figured, what an opportunity to get her in the water.

Except that when we got in the pond, she veered right of the path that the other horses had taken... and we were suddenly halfway up my thighs in water... oops. My initial reaction was to panic about the expensive-ass saddle I had on trial... that worry was quickly subsumed in the blossoming crisis of Licorice's panic... the pond, after all, was trying to eat her. So, we buck out of the pond in a glory of flying mud, rodeo style, me with on hand on the horn and the other hand making a feeble attempt at a one-rein stop... finally, I managed to stop her, and I have no idea how I stayed on, lol.. I was totally off-balance for this bucking fit, and I'm sure my entire body looked like a big pathetic noodle... And as I'm sitting there, both me and Lic getting our bearings (poor girl was shaking from head-to-toe) one of the guys I was riding with goes, "That's what you're supposed to hold onto the reins for. Heh." I'm sure I gave him a very pleasant look as I thanked him for the advice.

So, this little incident soured Lic to water a bit, and then the rains stopped for a few weeks, and only started back up a couple weeks ago. I went riding one day after it rained with my friend down the street, and we were going to take our normal little route through the wash, except when we got there (duh) the wash was flooded... not badly, probably less than a foot deep, but the water was rushing by pretty quick. Well, I was going to take Lic through it. In fact, I was going to dismount and lead her back and forth through it a few times, but before I got the chance, she panicked. She started backing up (which is a habit I need to break her of, as evidenced by this story) and ended up backing up into a ditch. I thought for a moment she was going to flip over on me, but good girl that she is, when it counted most, she took care of her rider. Instead of rearing backwards, she kind of reared and pivoted about a 180... which would have been fine except... the dirt in the ditch was so soft from the rain that her feet plunged in up to the elbows! Mind you, this all happened so fast all I know if that I'm on my horse, with my feet both in the stirrups and on the ground at the same time, my friend is going "holy shit!" and he 4 year old daughter is sobbing. My response- the only response I have to such a shit-flipping situation on a horse- calmly saying "whoa, take it easy girl" and assessing my next plan of action.

Well, poor Lic cannot get up with me on her... so I dived off to a side, terrified she had broken a leg. Lo and behold, as soon as my fat ass was off of her, she managed to clamber up the side of the ditch, uninjured except for a few scrapes. Once again proving that she is such a good girl, she turned and looked at me, rather than bucking off into the distance like I half expected her to. I got up and went to her, and other than being terrified, she was fine.

So, needless to say, after those two incidences, we have some work to do on water. In fact, I had to dismount and walk he back and forth on the trail where this whole ditch thing happened, even though the wash was dry, because she was scared just to go down the trail. But today, we made progress- she walked through a puddle, first I led her through, then we walked through it. Seems like when she sees it won't eat me, she's not so scared.

Her other big thing to get over, that we are working on, is cows. Just the sight of a cow is enough to send her spooking across the street. (No joke, people have cows in their yards here, and she will simply fly across the street to get away from one). Well, today, out on the state land, we saw a small herd- like 8 cows. Lic, of course, went batshit. Like absolutely flipped her grits, to the point where I could barely control her, because the fact that there was a human on her back didn't seem to register over the fact that there are cows, over there!!!!! OMG!!!! *Snort* *SNORT* Ahhh! They're looking AT ME!!!! It was pretty dramatic. I finally convinced her that we were just going to stand and LOOK at them, from a distance. They we all females with babies, and two were longhorns, so I didn't want to take any chances. Well, we were there watching the cows for like half and hour. They came up to the pond we were near (plan A had been working on crossing water, until the cows showed up), and Lic finally calmed down enough to approach within about 20 feet of them... until one of the (**cute!**) babies kind of ran around the pond... then it was *spin* *bolt* *snort* all over again. I think what I really need is to find someone with a cow in a corral and throw her ass in with it for a few days. But short of that (no friends with cows) I would appreciate any tips on desensitizing to cows.

There is a new training barn near here that supposedly has "introductory" rates, I emailed to inquire about them. Lic still hates arena work, and still needs work on rating her trot down to a jog and her heavy, on-the-forehand gallop into a lope... I'm hoping I can maybe even afford to put 30 days on her if the rates are low enough. I will update on that later, including a review of the barn if I do decide to do it.

Thanks for reading, the few of you who do!

The slightly less cranky mare

Things have been going well for Lic and I. We are cantering all over the place, and my consequence for her bucking seems to be very effective. She bucked twice this ride... for her, that's not bad at all! Once, I think she scraped her leg on some brush, and once, she was pissed because I was slowing her down out of a dead run. (I blame myself for that one in the first place for letting her get away from me.) But, here are some things we have accomplished in our past few rides:

-A pleasant canter and lope
-Rating the canter with my seat
-Half-halting out of a too-fast canter (almost a gallop, really) into a nice lope
-Backing using mainly alternating leg pressure with a supprotive rein
-Practicing/improving her jog

Best of all, she has learned that upward transitions without a command means work... I can actually feel her "thinking" about trotting, and changing her mind without my intervention. Also, we had a couple good spooks, but she is getting better at spooking in place, since my reaction to a bolt is an immediate one-rein stop and making her walk, calmly, past whatver spooked her several times. She still transitions downward without command, that will be the next thing I tackle, but for now, I'm happy working on one thing at a time. These are victories for me, too- I am still a relative newbie to riding and owning horses, so Licorice's improvements are reflections of improvement in my own riding and horsemanship.

Learning to be effective

The last two times I rode, I did something I felt bad for- I was caught off guard and yanked on her mouth because I was left behind. Oops. At least both times I got left behind it was for an undesirable action (a spook and a bolt). Meaning, at least I didn't pop her in the mouth for doing what I asked.

The first ride was the other day after it had finished raining. Somehow that day, I forgot to bring my common sense, because a storm had just passed, it was 20 degrees cooler out, and it was close to feeding time. In my mind, that meant it was a great time to throw on a bareback pad and hack down the street, without so much as lungeing first. Ah well, I remembered my helmet.

Shocking as it is, with all of those factors in combination, Licorice was a little on the fresh side. Yes, unbelievable, I know. It was go, stop, *snort,* spook the whole ride. We saw a coyote, which made her edgy but thankfully didn't make her explode. Finally, about 15 minutes in, she was wired and freaking out. I asked for a canter (have we lost count of the stupid decisions I made that day?) and she literally leapt into it, like she was jumping a fence. Recognizing that my poor little mare was out of her mind nervous, I decided that a *walk* would be more prudent. Unfortunately, she started trying to bolt at every little thing. A dog, another horse, the wind. So, my plan of action became clear, as I imagined my trainer in my head saying "Make the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult."

Okay, so every spook or attempt to bolt was met with a one-rein stop, bending each way, and backing three steps. One our way home, Lic kept trying to break from a walk to jog without being asked. Stop, bend, back. It only took about 5 reps before she got it. By the end of the ride, I could feel her "thinking" about jogging, and by lightly lifting one rein just shut her down. I cued for a jog for the last block as a reward, and she jogged slowly and smoothly on a loose rein like such a good girl.

The next day, I rode out into a field. The ground was still soft from the rain so she was more than happy to canter when I asked. (This is making me think even more that I need to buy some boots for her when riding on hard ground.) Everything was fine until we turned back toward home- she threw two big bucks and tried to bolt. So, i met this with the same technique as the day before, but with a little more oomph, since I want to teach her that bucking and bolting is a big no-no. We stopped, she got to spin three times each way (not like a reining spin, obviously, but a tight turn) and then back about ten feet. The she got to canter back to where we started (this, too, was initially met with resistance, and she was given the same stop, spin and back routine) and try again. This went out for about ten minutes, and finally, a light went off in her horsey head, and she realized it would be easier to just canter than all this spinning, backing, and repeating. So we cantered back through the field, good as gold, no bucks!

Long story short, I feel like something clicked in my head- to calmly but firmly redirect her to doing something hard and repetitive when she's bad. She's a smart cookie, if I'm consistent, I know this will work. And even though she wasn't perfect, we made progress, which is the most important thing to me.

Hmmm...

Had our lunge-line lesson yesterday, and everything was great until we asked for a canter. Lic fell into the strung-out death trot, pinned ears, tail swishing, some minimal bucking... She really hates cantering in a circle, and I don't get it. My trainer said sometimes it can be a balance thing, but I didn't look unbalanced to her... and then we switched places and got the same thing... attitude. Both times we eventually got a canter, but it was an on-the-forehand, really unwilling type of canter.

She canters just fine on a lunge-line if there's no person on her back, although she will sometimes throw some attitude about it, it's not nearly as bad.

Out on the trail, it kind of depends on the day, and on her mood. Sometimes she'll canter amazingly, right out of a walk, calm and collected. Other days, I get attitude, bucking, balking, anything to avoid it. I don't understand how it could be pain if literally she's good one day, bad the next, good again the next. I'm baffled, and so is my trainer. She has suggested getting some Easyboots, as there is some possibility of her being tenderfooted on the rocks... but still, some days we'll get a nice canter, and the next day, an attitude, on the exact same stretch of ground.

*Sigh* I guess I'm continuing on my search for cheap, used boots.

Different approaches

Well, Someone else on blogger gave me the idea to work with Licorice's innate talents (eating and being lazy) when training. Deer Run Stables gave me the idea to use buckets with treats as a training aid, and so far, it seems to be helping at least. Licorice likes to walk down the driveway as slowly as possible. Putting a bucket with a carrot at the end of thr driveway seems to be goading her along- now we're only stopping for no reason once or twice instead of ever 3 steps. Hooray for progress!

The other day, while doing this exercise, my stupid goats escaped. As we were already at the end of the driveway, I decided to test out Licorices herding talents. It wasn't a very successful attempt (actually, I ended up leading Lic while I chased the goats through a neighbor's yard... *rolls eyes*) but she was game to try... I just don't think she had any idea whatsoever what I wanted. But she didn't balk or argue with me. My trainer has told me that with ehr type of personality, if she senses there is a purpose to what I ask, she'll be happier to comply. It's the endless drilling that pisses her off. So she must have sensed my sense of purpose, I guess.

Yesterday I went on a trail ride (well, in my town a trail ride is basically a ride down the street) and hid a couple buckets along the way. I also carried carrots with me to treat good behavior. We ended up on state land, and another thing I noticed is that while Licorice does this sort of stop and start thing on the road, she didn't balk once on state land. I don't know if that's because cars and activity still makes her nervous, or if she just enjoyed the vast oppenness of the state land. Either way, she was good as gold.

I have a lesson today, we're going to do a lunge-line lesson to try to get Lic more comfortable with cantering in a circle with a person on her back, and for that matter, to get me more comfortable. I'm actually kind of excited.

The terrible things we do to our horses...

Look at that face. Clearly, Lic's bath is the worst possible thing that could have ever happened to her. LOL... she actually wasn't too bad, but I ended up leaving conditiomer in her tail because anytime I got remotely near her hind end with the hose, she would just spin away from me. I ended up using a bucket to rinse as best I could, and she kind of squatted and cowered her back legs, like omigod I need to get away from this water but I can't run because I'm tied this is SO scary. I did my best to convince her it really wasn't horrible, but girlfriend wasn't buying it. I can't wait to try getting her into a body of water... that should be interesting. We have a small lake with trails around it, and I think horses are allowed. I just bought a trailer, which needs some minor repairs before I can use it, but as soon as it works, we're going to the park- it's about 20 mins away. But, for the sake of my own pride, (and the safety of others, lol) I think we'll save this whole "let's take the horses swimming" thing for a time when the park is pretty dead. Dusk maybe?

Speaking of trailers, Lic is hesitant to go into mine, but I'm sure with just some time and patience this will be pretty easy to deal with. She's been trailered a number of times before, but this is an old clangy trailer, and it's also a smallish two-horse straight load, so I'm sure she's feeling a bit claustrophobic. Plus, we're just hitting our stride in terms of getting along and getting her to trust me, so it may take a bit of work. Today I fed them breakfast in the trailer (they got to stay out on the ground but had to stick their heads in to eat). Afterward, Dutch loaded with just a bit of hesitation, and I managed to get Lic about 3/4 of the way in. Lot's of good girl (and good boy- Dutch was super good) and then they got to eat some hay. So, we're on the right track.

And, as an aside, compared to a week ago, Lic has finally decided that her fly mask really isn't that big of a deal. I can put it on with just minor fussing now.

Minor things, but good things. Baby steps and all. This weekend we are going to work on flexing and collection- something we both need practice on.

Finally- a good trainer!

I had a riding lesson a couple days ago from a wonderful NH trainer. It really was a combination of a few things- a saddle fitting, training, and riding lesson. According to her, Licorice has a very solid base of training- it's just a matter of getting me properly trained now!

I learned that I definitely need some refinement in my groundwork. There are times (for example, when yielding the forehand) when I start too "big" with my cue, and it surprised me to see just how "small" I can be with that cue and get a response. But, in contrast, when I am cueing, say, from a trot to a canter when lungeing, I need to spend less time in each "phase" of cueing, and be more precise and forceful- like when I pick up my stick (yes, I use a carrot stick style thing, and I love the way it feels) picking it up needs to be one phase of pressure, and when I use it, I need to USE it- none of this nagging at her hind end. It's listen to the "nice" cues, or your ass is getting stung. When I saw the trainer work her, Lic woke up and always had an eye on her, within one minute. This is opposed to her kind of la-de-da attitude she has with me, like "okay, well, I guess if you won't leave me a lone, I may as well canter." With this trainer, it was "Yes, Ma'am! And how fast would you like me to go?" Awesome.

Under saddle, we mostly worked on me using my seat more effectively at slow speeds, for walking and halting. We picked two spots in my riding area for transitions, so Lic can "listen" for my seat cue to stop. So far she has been picking it up in the arena area, but not on trails. Practice will make perfect on that one. I also learned that part of her bucking issue is my body position. (Part of it is also attitude, and part of it is probably also saddle fit, at least in my Aussie saddle). I tend to lean back at a walk and trot, and then lean forward when asking for a canter, which makes it difficult for her to lift her shoulder. Which explains perfectly why she bucks when I ask for a canter but can pop into it very nicely on her own volition. And which also explains why she randomly sometimes will throw one or two canter steps into a trot. She's not being bad, she thinks that's what I want!

So yesterday, I practiced what I learned. I still got attitude about cantering in a circle, so either my balance or her balance or both are still off... or it could be that she expects me to lean forward and get in her way... or she could just be pissy about it. But when we went on our trail ride- cantering straight lines was so easy! She didn't pin her ears or offer to buck once! It was amazing for me, because my horse actually responded like "Oh, you want me to canter? Cool! Sounds like fun!" I was wooping and laughing the whole time, it was amazing! The only little oops we had was when I thought we were clear to go around a bush- Lic clearly had other ideas, because she jumped it! (I stayed on this time, lol). I did get left behind and I'm sure I popped her in the mouth, which I felt bad about, but she was a saint about it and simply landed in a nice balanced canter. I can't wait to get an English saddle and learn to jump on her!

Today I'm going to work her in a bareback pad and see what kind of results I get. Here's hoping... and I am definitely taking more lessons with this lady!