Monday, October 31, 2016

Fort Valley Drag Riding

Getting ready to ride!
Sunny and I had a great time drag riding both Friday and Saturday for the Fort Valley Endurance ride. We arrived late Thursday afternoon, just in time to set up camp and vet-in before the ride dinner and meeting.  Sunny loaded on the trailer on the first try and was absolutely wonderful while I set up camp. He just stood patiently, calmly surveying his new digs, while I got the hi-tie, hay net, water, etc all set up.  I am so impressed with him! (he did not swing his head around madly, bang his eyes into the trailer doors, or anything else remotely silly!).  At the vet-in he acted like a pro, standing quietly and trotting out nicely by my side.  He makes it so easy there is nothing exciting to write about!

Friday morning we were signed up to ride the last loop of the 30 mile ride, a nice 14 mile loop through the rolling hills with beautiful views of Gold Medal Farms and their young endurance prospects www.facebook.com/GoldMedalFarms  It was a little confusing to find out when the last 30 mile riders were heading out on trail so my partner and friend, Patrice, and I were a few minutes behind schedule.  We had a beautiful, easy, ride together taking about 3 hrs to ride the 14 miles.  I learned that Sunny likes to go fast and he doesn't really have a 'slow-trot' speed or 'button' as of yet.  I also learned that while the Ultimate Bitless Bridle is fantastic for schooling and communication, it does not work as well for brakes; it seemed to tighten up causing the crown piece to slide down Sunny's neck and then stayed tight.  The left front Renegade boot came off once, but it was following silliness in the field where Sunny did lots of twisting/turning as we had a discussion about waiting for the other horses and not going fast and furious!  Rogan's saddle that I am using temporarily on Sunny is a little too wide and it did tend to slip back and then dip down into the 'shoulder-pocket' area. I had to readjust it several times.  At the end of the loop both horses vetted in just fine.  We later enjoyed an excellent ride dinner and I was very jealous of the completion awards -- very nice monogrammed Old Dominion bath/camp towels or a monogrammed winter beanie hat. I was wanting to enter the 30 mile ride just for that completion award.  I don't recall getting a completion award at No Frills, maybe I missed it?  After dinner I called home and check the overnight lows as it was feeling a bit chilly. The National Weather Service said 39 degrees without wind or rain, so I decided not to sheet Sunny.  He has never been routinely blanketed, but the horses tend to get chilled more easily when tied to the trailer where they can't move around or get out of the elements.  But at 39 degrees I thought he would be just fine.

Our Campsite
Unfortunately, when I woke Saturday morning there was ice on the windshield and the grass was iced as well. So much for 39, more like 32!  Sunny did seem a little chilled, but was not shivering so I guess he was fine, but in hindsight with the temperature reaching freezing I would have put a light sheet on at least.   It warmed up rapidly once the sun came over the mountain and I enjoyed some hot chocolate at the ride camp tent and Sunny and I took a walk around camp to stretch our legs.  I then adjusted Rogan's S-hackmore to fit Sunny, I did not want to have the bridle over tightening again, nor have only 1 speed option!  Enjoyed a relaxing day reading a little in the warm sun while Sunny ate, packing up camp so I could easily head home when finished, and then volunteering at the Pulse/Recovery station for a bit.  I found I am not entirely suited for the P/R station as I tend to get loud and excited about things, which then doesn't help the competitors horses pulse down (whoops!!).  I will know to do better next time!

Head down the trail
On Saturday it was much easier to find out when the last of the 50 mile riders arrived in camp and their out-times to head out on the last loop, so I knew when to tack up and be ready to follow them out on trail. This was the same loop I rode on Friday, but a little later in the day so I had my new headlamp ready to go just in case.  My friend, Patrice, unfortunately had become sick so my substitute partner for the last loop was Lacy on her well-conditioned hunt horse. This was Lacy's first endurance ride experience and we were thrilled to have her along!  The 'turtle rider' was happy to have riding buddies for her last loop so we all rode together.    The S-Hack worked much better for Sunny and we were able to keep about a 6 mph trot behind the last competitor.  He did have moments where he even thought about relaxation and head lowering at the trot!  At the walk Sunny definitely enjoyed stretching his head and neck down and then proceeding to power walk his gaited-horse 5 mph flat walk, which then required me to slow him down so we could stay behind the last competitor on her adorable appaloosa.   We finished the 14 miles slightly quicker than on Friday, in 2 hr 50 minutes, but we kept a pretty steady pace until the last 2 miles where we all mosied in walking and letting the horses nibble on the lush grass.

Sunny was still pretty sweaty and steaming after our final vet-check so I actually got to use my cooler (orginally Poptart's- an on-sale Rambo Newmarket cooler) for the first time.  It fits Sunny pretty well, just a bit short on the rump.  After he was walked out I set him up at camp and went to dinner (excellent taco salad!).  After dinner and ride awards I hurried back to the trailer to get everything loaded up to head home. The cooler actually worked, it was beaded up with moisture on the outside and Sunny was warm and dry underneath.  It took a few attempts to load him, he went in nicely but then decided to back on out the first 2-3 times. I was happy he stayed relaxed and never braced and then went in easily on the 4th attempt and we headed home.  I find it is always a little more intimidated for the horses to load at night using the loading lights, even Rogan will hesitate a little in that situation.  But I am going to make sure we keep consistently practicing loading at home to ensure it is never an issue!

So things I learned:  While Sunny needs more schooling with transitions between gaits and within the gait, as well as learning relaxation while moving out at the trot/canter, he is a very honest and steady horse. I had no qualms or fears for my safety even when he decided it would be fun to gallop up a hill or move into his power trot/rack (or something very fast I couldn't post to) at 10+ mph. We just enjoyed going fast together ;)  I think he will be able to rock these endurance rides and we are going to have loads of fun together.

Beautiful views of the fall mountains at dusk
My plan now is to take a step back and work on schooling and slowly bringing him back to endurance conditioning over the winter. I plan on developing his arena skills so we can easily walk/trot/gait/canter in the arena and even turn at the same time ;), as well as start our lateral work including shoulder-in, counter shoulder-in, opening gates, etc.  Concurrently, I am going to start him on the Perseverance Endurance conditioning schedule: https://perseveranceendurancehorses.wordpress.com/2012/10/17/endurance-training/, starting with 48 hours of walking only on the trail.
 My tentative goal is to try for the 50 mile ride at No Frills next April.

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Initial Plan and Reality

Initial plan - Part 1



Woke up this morning (my day off) with a head cold which will slow me down a bit :(  I have been thinking about my initial training plan with Sunny. He gave us a bit of difficulty loading into my trailer on the way home, even though he has loaded and hauled many times on Wendy’s and other trailers. We ended up bullying him a little to get him loaded successfully, not my ideal and ultimate goal for trailer loading!  I found it very interesting that increased pressure/bullying worked so well to load Sunny initially. We basically just increased the tapping/pressure on his hind end until he decided he was more bothered by the pressure behind than the horse trailer and loaded.  We needed to get home!!  I used to use this technique routinely with horses, ie increasing the pressure until they did what I desired, then immediately releasing.  Then I adopted Poptart ;)  When you increased pressure with Poptart much beyond a polite but firm insistence it backfired.  Instead of a horse that did the task, you had an exploding fireball that absolutely was not going to go in/over/through the desired task, to the point even approaching the obstacle was an issue.  Poptart would just get more and more reactive and fearful with more pressure; increased pressure did not work with him.  It took over 2 hours to trap Poptart in the horse trailer when I initially brought him home... he taught me so much. What actually worked for Poptart was essentially asking by adding polite pressure and then just waiting with the same pressure until he offered the slightest try, and releasing immediately so he knew he answered the ‘question’ correctly. Within a few minutes of this he generally would eagerly choose to try the task.  Not to say it didn’t take lots of repetition, but we all stayed relaxed and happy and ultimately Poptart sent into the horse trailer or attempted other obstacles nicely.  I just find the personality of the individual horses and breeds fascinating, maybe the hotter breeds demand more sensitivity and consideration and the more level headed breeds just figure it is easier to do whatever task the human is asking.  However, I firmly believe (and will be experimenting) that any horse will appreciate and respond better ultimately (ie have a better partnership) to patiently waiting and maintaining the question (ie polite pressure) until the horse gives the slightest try in the right direction then releasing and letting him know he got the ‘correct answer’. However, having a horse that does respond to bullying pressure is convenient because should we ever get into a tight bind I have a tool that may save us both, but that doesn’t mean it is the best tool to use routinely for teaching and partnership.

So, back to Sunny.  I know he is quite accustomed to horse trailers in general, has hauled to many rides and even across the country, but my horse trailer is new/different and it has a ramp instead of a step.  Sunny has excellent basic groundwork/manners but I don’t think he has ever had a lot of obstacle play, 7 games, or extensive groundwork.

I am going to prioritize teaching him to confidently and easily load in my trailer (now his trailer) with a simple send-in (not lead-in).  Trailer loading is my first priority for several reasons:
1. In case of emergency such as injury or evacuation due to fire, etc. he needs to be able to load quickly
2. I am signed up to drag ride at Fort Valley and we need to be able to get to the ride
3. I would like to haul out this weekend to ride  
4. And while I want to play with dressage to improve both of us, I know he rides fine already so trailer loading is much more important

After some thought I have decided to start our trailer loading by playing games with obstacles. This will allow us to develop a language and practice communication and understanding while building confidence squeezing over, around, through various obstacles. This will grow our relationship and partnership as well.  Depending on how it goes I may play with the horse trailer as an obstacle today, but do not want to send him on until I am fairly confident the answer will be yes.


Reality - Part 2:

Ok, I was completely wrong. Apparently some horses just do things, I did not know horses like this existed!  Even Rogan, who is an excellent horse, never just does things; he is an excellent horse because we have spent many hours together teaching him how to respond appropriately and to be confident with obstacles and situations. Even with all this he can still have claustrophobic moments about tying or girthing.  Sunny has no problem just doing the obstacles which took Rogan at least a few sessions to conquer, and that Poptart was never able to go over confidently.  I am very, very glad I have had challenging horses that have taught me so much and now I can greatly appreciate a willing partner. How much can you train the reaction out of a horse (or build confidence into the horse) and how much is just the innate horse personality??


Once again, I did not know there were horses like this, I have never played with such a docile, willing partner before, ever!  Not to say he didn't try some small things like pushing his shoulder into my personal space a few times or thought about demanding treats (the treat dispenser has now broken, LOL!) but these issues were easily corrected.  When I approached the mattress, Sunny bit it once then walked over it like he has walked over one every day of his life; most horses are a least a little hesitant about the odd squishy feeling when they step.  Since we whizzed through sending over all the obstacles I decided to go ahead and play with loading.  I gave the horses a grazing break in the yard while I hooked up the trailer and pre-loaded the manager with a pan of feed.  

Sunny definitely had more brace about the trailer than any of the obstacles. He clearly knew what the trailer was and was prepared to object.  So I gave him nothing to object.  I checked to make sure he could back up to the edge of the ramp to evaluate his confidence in backing and obstacles behind him (100% okay, I expect it will be easy to teach him to back all the way in).  Then I just lifted the lead and asked him to step on the ramp, the same as the obstacles in the arena.  Then I praised, waited for relaxation and asked him to back off.  We repeated this and after a few repetitions he started to become curious and explore the trailer, sniffing the divider, ramp, wall, etc.  Each time he offered a little more and I never pushed and always kept a loose lead (nothing to brace or pull against).  We practiced lateral disenagements and yielding the shoulder between repetitions to keep things fresh. Then one time he decided to walk all the way in and found the delicious feed surprise in the manager. He ate the feed, relaxed, then slowly backed off. We loaded 3 more times, each time relaxing and munching on yummy feed, and on the last try he demanded to go back in halfway through backing out!  I will repeat this for the next few sessions so he falls in love with the trailer, but I think we will be all set for riding out!






Things I found he needs to learn or to have more practice: 
1. Yielding the shoulder, I believe most of this is body stiffness but we could have a little pushiness as well.
2. Backing by the tail. I use this cue for backing out of the trailer.

I actually have a whole mental list of things I want to confirm that he is comfortable with and can do, but now I expect that may go a whole lot quicker than originally thought.

Some of the eventual tasks to check and/or become comfortable with and learn:
-hobbling
-saddle slipping under belly 
-sidepassing over obstacles
-walk/trot/canter online
-develop great draw at liberty (and other liberty play)
-driving/pulling the arena drag

Luckily winter is coming and it is a great time to play with your horse!

Sunday, October 16, 2016

Introducing Sonny's Silver Rising Sun

Now introducing Sonny's Silver Rising Sun (Sunny).



Sunny is a 9 year old (2007 model) blue roan Kentucky Mountain Horse gelding.  He has a very nice build for endurance, good substance but slight enough to have great metabolics. And amazing rock hard mountain horse hooves!!  He is almost a complete mix between Rogan and Poptart, very sensible, but also athletic with a little extra 'go'.

My friend Wendy has had him since he was a yearling. She started him under saddle and has given him a solid foundation and lots of trail experience.  He even went to both Old Dominion and Ride between the Rivers this year. He has lived the ideal natural life of a horse, out with a herd on large mountain acreage. He is used to the elements and knows how to take care of himself.

I met Sunny and Wendy last year when I was starting to condition Poptart and we have ridden and conditioned together ever since.  I knew Sunny as a reliable horse that would lead the way when Poptart need support, managed the Old Dominion trails barefoot, but still had some opinions about being left by other horses or wanting to go a little bit faster.  Mostly I didn't pay much attention to him as I was focused completely on Poptart (Riding Poptart did not allow room for focusing on other things!)

After I came to the hard conclusion that Poptart and I were not suited, I thought I should ride Sunny at least once when starting to look for a new partner.  Wendy had recently listed him for sale and was looking for an endurance riding partner for him. As we rode together all the time it was easy enough to switch horses and take a test ride.  I didn't think I would like him, I thought he would move heavy and clunky like Rogan.  I wanted a light sensitive horse like Poptart, but just a tad less reactive and spooky.  I fell in love with Sunny.

He was so sensible that I immediately felt confident in him. We rode through some nasty briers, he plunged through and I lifted my knees up high off the saddle and he took care of us.  When he looked sideways at farm equipment he trusted me that it was okay and we walked right passed.  We trusted each other.  He had an easy 4 mph walk and then we trotted and it was quite nice and smooth.  Then we cantered and it was earth-shattering, I have never ridden a canter like that - it felt as if I were on a porch glider-type rocking chair. I was sold, hook- line-and-sinker, then and there! And that is not even mentioning the effortless 11 mph downhill trot!  (I think Wendy was quite ready to switch back after experiencing Rogan's well-behaved, but out-of-balance washing machine style canter!)

After a few more test rides and checks, I picked Sunny up on my way home from returning Poptart (talk about bittersweet).  I kept Rogan in the stall so they could meet safely with a thick wall between both horses.





After the initial squeals and a minor kicking match they are good friends. Rogan seems fascinated that he cannot push Sunny around with just a dirty look.

Today I went out in the field at least 100 different times, each time trying a piece of tack on Sunny or measuring him for new tack, and each time he got a rub and a bit of carrot.  He has an itchy spot he likes scratched on his stomach and is now looking forward to me coming to visit him.   I trimmed his feet and he was amazing for that too (thank you Wendy!). He stood ground tied in the barn aisle and politely lifted each hoof for me to rasp.  Most of Poptart's tack is going to fit (yay!!) even including 1 pair of hoof boots.


We played in the arena with Missy and Rogan for a few minutes this afternoon too. It was wonderful to start to see Sunny come out of his shell as he became more comfortable with me.  Initially he wasn't comfortable enough to stand and just chill, he wanted to walk and move his feet.  I am quite accustomed to that so we went to work walking around the arena and introduced our baby shoulder-in/lateral disengagement. This seemed to baffle him, he tried very hard but kept moving his shoulder into my personal space when he turned.  It took me a minute, but I realized he just didn't know how to readily bend the lower 1/3 of his neck under saddle/in-hand (obviously he can bend it just fine in the field to bite a fly).  So I just moved right along to gently asking him to bend and release his neck laterally on each side (very gentle bodywork/stretching exercises).  It didn't take long before he stretched out his neck and gently curved it around; he is definitely stiffer on the right side (I think it was the right side). After that he quickly started to understand the beginnings of lateral disengagement in-hand. We also introduced shifting his weight back and then stretching his neck down and forward.

Sunny seemed to think the best part was standing on my basic platform and getting a cookie! It didn't take long before he was offering to stand on things all by himself and following me like a puppy.   We kept it simple as I didn't want to scare him at all in our first session, I wanted him to look forward to next time. I loved the ears forward, gentle inquisitiveness I was getting with him, it was so much fun!

 I hopped on bareback for a bit, and just walked around the arena and introduced the same lateral disengagement while riding.  As earlier he was stiff in his lower neck and preferred to pivot on his front foot rather than step under himself and bend.  This did improve each time and we stopped and stood quietly chatting with Missy until Sunny lowered his head and sighed with relaxation.

The best part was after putting the horses away and feeding I went inside.  Rogan was shut-in the stall while they ate so he doesn't take Sunny's food/vitamins. While inside I heard galloping hoofbeats, a loud whinny, and saw a blue-black blur running through the field.  I ran outside immediately, not sure what happened as Rogan was still shut-in the stall. I called to Sunny and he saw me, spun and came running.  I directed him back to the barn where all was okay.  I think he 'lost' Rogan as he must have expected Rogan to follow him out into the field.  I love that after just a single short session together he looked to me for comfort and safety.

 Here's to the beginning of a wonderful partnership and many years and miles of trail together!