Better?

You tell me.

1:





and 2:




Comments and critiques welcome, but I think I improved (except for the very end lurch).


More videos and a post a little later. Stayed up too late. It was 110 today, which we do not do.

This better not be global warming, because if it is, I'm moving.

Hope you had a horse filled weekend...

Cantering video

Here's a brief video of my near death... er,... my canter on Lily when she felt a bit "pitchy." Let me know if I am doing anything to cause this problem from what you see. (I did get off balance at the end, so that lean was definitely not helping. :))




(isn't she just the bees knees?)

Another Lesson from Lily and Inside Turns

Taking my lesson from Lily

Today I watched as the trainer took Smokey off for a long trail ride. She really wanted me to go, but there's no way. I'm still rebuilding courage and haven't taken a step off the immediate area around the barn. Sometimes you have to dive into the pool. Sometimes you have to slip in the shallow end and mess around there for a while.

I remember when I was young and nearly drowned in a pool. I got kicked twice in the head by an errant swimmer and started to go down. I was sinking to the bottom, feeling my hair brush against my face like an angel wing. The life guard pulled me up, out of the water, and into the bright light.

After the commotion died down, I sat on the edge of the deep end for a good 20 minutes, then jumped in and swam to the shallow end. I was more careful in the deep end after that, more aware of people around me. But I still swam in deep water, never really worried that what happened would happen again.

I will be there again with trail riding. But right now I'm still in my 20 minute period, I suppose.

------------------------

Lily and I were joined by Sierra and steady Cody for some work in the arena. I'd read this post by Julie Goodnight and wanted to work on my reining - specifically not pulling back when working reins. I quickly realized I wasn't sure how to fix it, but realized the value of figuring it out. I too have the issue of not maintaining a canter after a turn because I'm telling the horse to slow down as I'm telling it to turn. Which is not particularly helpful.

Lily proceeded to give me a different lesson on cantering in a turn. I wanted to work on this because I keep ending up in a corner of the arena during a canter circle with Smokey. I couldn't understand what was going on, and had worked on getting his turns better at the trot. We could do it in the round pen but didn't stay on the rails. Something was wrong with that horse!

Then I was in Lily's nice slow canter when she did the same thing.

Well darn. Apparently it's me. (Again)

So I rode it again and again (breaking it up with some other work so Lily didn't just throw up her hooves and head out for a latte). Then I found it.

I was leaning. Frankly I don't even know if I was leaning left or right. But I wasn't straight. I focused on being straight as a mast on a ship and BOOM. We turned.

We sidepassed just to show I still had it, walked through the cones and stopped with a thought. Enough for one day.

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In my post on round penning someone asked how to consistently get inside turns. I think there are two things that help make that happen: Correct body position and demanding it.

I work on the theory that horses know that turning their butt to you is rude. I don't know for a fact that this is true, but I've been told it enough to suspect that it is. So turning inside is like not cussing me out when I ask you to do something.

Body position
While round penning you have to be very aware of your body position. Think of your core, that area around your belly, as a satellite dish. Where you point it is where your energy is most strongly felt by your horse. Your shoulders, arms, legs, they all focus that energy. If you bend slightly, you reduce the pressure of that energy toward the horse. If you keep a very erect stance, you up it. In general you want to point it at your horse's hindquarters, not the shoulder.

It's easy to start watching your horse's face, looking at his ear, his head, his muzzle. But you really need to focus on the hind quarter and push it away from you with your body position. I can turn my horses with just a shift of weight and movement of my shoulders. If they are paying attention. So as long as you are keeping your energy in the right area, you can be sure you aren't causing an outside turn.

Demanding
The second part is just demanding the correct turn and rewarding it when it happens. When my horse gives me an outside turn I get after them like crazy. I raise the whip, make a growl, make face, stomp. It's crystal clear. And we turn again quick. And again. The minute I get the right thing, and inside turn, I dial the energy all the way back.

But some horses who haven't been through the process are going to get it wrong. Some are going to test it. Some are going to over react. Some are going to freak. You have to be fair, clear, and realize that every horse is so different. I don't have the same round penning with Lily that I do with Smokey. Smokey thinks he's going to figure out how to get out of it. Lily is worried that she's going to get it wrong. Those require some adjustments on my part. But the body position and demand stay the same.

By the end, though, there is little question that we've gotten to where we needed to go.

Again, your mileage may vary. And remember, while this is great on the ground it doesn't wholly translate in the saddle (as I am living proof). But it does make for a much safer horse on the ground. And both horses load well and have stellar ground manners.

Worthy ends in and of themselves, IMHO.

Adventures in Trailering and Circles at the Canter

I took Friday off from work, and decided to devote the afternoon and evening to horse related activities. I texted Trail Rider and he was able to get the day off as well.

I nearly imploded from excitement.

Instead, both my trailer tires imploded on the way over.

But wait, I wasn't supposed to tell you that yet. I was supposed to build up the suspense, yada yada.

The plan was to meet at my old barn, which is open again and filled with horses. There's even a waiting list. I love riding there, the arena is fabulous and I enjoy Sharon so much. So I was looking forward to getting there. There was a possibility that DH would be joining us, so I loaded Lily as well as Smokey.

She hasn't been sound at the trot, but I decided to try using a pain med a vet had given me to use before work. Given that I am running out of options (she is still on adequan, it seemed worth trying - I'd been resistant because I don't want to merely mask the problem. But my ability to get this diagnosed AGAIN is... well, let's just say I'm focusing on keeping the hay flowing right now.

Still time off is not working. She's crabby mare, which is who she was when we first got her. Lily needs to be involved, engaged, doing something.

We were about halfway there when a guy in a white pick up pulled up beside me at a light.

"You've blown a tire," he said.

I checked the mirror, but couldn't really see the tire. I pulled over once I was past the light and hopped out there it was. Shredded.

Thank god I had a double axle trailer. I looked at the spare. It didn't look much better.

"Do you have a jack?" the guy had pulled over behind me. This is what I like about Texas. I know how to change a tire, but have only had to do so twice in my life because a guy always stops and helps.

I do, but it's complicated. See, I can't open the tail gate in DH's truck because the handle is broken. DH opens it no problem but my little thin fingers are lousy levers. Lucky this guy, Tony, was gifted with big fingers as well.

I called Trail rider and DH (who was riding his iron horse - the harley) and gave them an update. Needless to say, I was going to be late.

We got the tire on. Oddly, Tony admonished me for pulling over and not checking the tire from inside the truck (I couldn't see it from there). "I could have been a bad guy" said Tony, concerned. I pointed out that I immediately got on my cell phone and we were on a busy enough road in broad daylight. And I had to see what was happening. Then he confessed that he has a young daughter and always worries about these things.

"Don't go far, that spare has dry rot," he said as he drove off.

I just had ten miles to go. And I was too far from my home barn now. I put it in drive and headed off.

And made it about five miles before the spare blew.

I made my calls and said I'd be limping in, but at this point I was going to try to get there. Let me tell you, a shredded tire kicks up an enormous amount of dust, even at 10 miles an hour.

I got there forty five minutes behind schedule, but determined. Determined to ride like crazy. You don't come in on three tires and sit on your bumper, mourning your lost treads!

I saddled both horses and tied Lily (she eventually had to be moved to a patience tree, since she decided to paw). Smokey and I rode with Trail Rider, warming up. Then TR put me through some paces.

What I wanted to accomplish was canter circles. Since steering remains such an issue - at the canter, I think we're solid at the trot - it's the area I need the most practice. A few weeks ago I asked the trainer/barn owner to ride Smokey so I could see what I was doing wrong.

I saw it immediately. I had too much play in the reins. With me, Smokey was at a loss on where to hold his head. I would pull them in, play them out, but with she kept the reins a more consistent length and much shorter than I do. Even at the canter. And she worked on catching the problem at the turn much earlier. That's what I needed to do. Anticipate and compensate.

TR demonstrated perfect canter circles on Woody and we attempted to follow. The trot was lovely, I had to work a bit on collection, because being in a new place Smokey was definitely "up" in head as well as in spirit. After far more trot circles than should be needed, I'd get him into the canter, which he started by throwing his head fairly high. Almost like a kick start. Once going he has a rocking horse canter, but he gets into swinging his head around oddly. It was ugly looking, but really, what do I expect? We've only done this a few times. And now we were doing it - a lot. He was getting annoyed at one point, but I kept my cool and we worked through the crow hop, cow kick and a buck threat.

I wish I could say by the end we were doing great. But we weren't. We were mediocre. Even that is probably a stretch. But it was a vast improvement from where we started.

I keep reminding myself this is where we used to be at the TROT. I am making progress. When DH arrived he elected to take care of the tire issue instead of ride. I knew he felt bad that I had a hard time, since he sees trailer maintenance as his job. But honestly with the six months we have had, it's a wonder we're both still walking. So he brought back two tires as we finished up but encourage me to hit the road. Given the time, Lily ended up not getting ridden, but it was okay. Sometimes you have to go through the motions. The plan was now that Lily and Smokey would have a slumber party at TR's place. I'd move them back home in the morning.

Because I wasn't done with horse time. No sir. We had another horse activity planned.

Ranch Sorting.

Of course before we left we had a bit of drama, things I've forgotten how much fun they are to deal with. Like watching someone try to catch their horse, then reacting with horror when seeing them inexplicably walking into an entire herd of horses with a bucket of grain.

But you'll have to wait for Part 2. Cuz this cowgirl is sackin' out for the night!

When horses run

Smokey and I have been hard at work at the barn, trying to put everything we learned at the clinic to work. Over all things have gone well. Generally Smokey is a little rusty the first day we get back to work after a break (with work I can't really get to the barn for 3-4 days) and we have to work hard on steering and keeping his head in the right position. So we do that first each day until we're back on track.

By back on track I mean until we turn well in both directions at the trot without having to do the lift maneuver.

Some days that's 6 circles. Some days it feels like 26.

But going out on our own is getting better and better. We still only ride within the general area of the barn, but there's less balking and "barn diving" (you know, doing hard turns back to the barn). The improvement is very incremental, but discernible.

Then there is the run.

We went to the lake last weekend with B and her new horse - the 4 year old gaited Palomino Buddy that Donna was selling - and with D and her gaited TWH Trigger.

B (who is also our farrier) is no longer threatening to steal Smokey. She's in deep love with her new horse.

However, Smokey and Buddy (who is very alpha) don't get along, and Smokey gives him a wide berth. Until they start running.

Smokey did well on the trail around the lake, not spooking or anything. But when we got to the area where we all tend to do some loping he got... competitive. I couldn't keep him in a solid canter and pretty quick we were in a run, catching up with Buddy who was at the head of the pack.

The run didn't feel out of control, other than it was faster than I wanted to go. I thought I'd probably be able to slow him down if I veered him off to the side because I still had steering. But it was exhilarating, in a way. And, when we came down (and then hung out with Trigger, who is much older and wasn't going to do any more cantering), Smokey did fine. No jigging, no calling out. He ran out one other time at a different spot, again racing to catch up to Buddy.

Only later did I think of one thing I could have done - kept him running and running past the herd. It's like all those times after a party when you think of the things you should have said.

But at least I did ride it out and now I won't be afraid of it.

I know that the issue is simple: I need more practice at the canter. We've only cantered a handful of times. He never raced into a run before.

So we worked on this a little today in the arena. It was messy at the start, but we got better before calling it a day.

So what do you do with a racing horse? I don't think this is a "every time we canter" thing. I think it's just in a herd. How do you get that stop nice and sticky in the canter - or get them to rate down? Lots of transitions?

Advice is welcome and needed!

Wind, ears, and new reins

What an incredible spring day. Chamber of commerce weather, as we used to say when I worked for the Chamber of Commerce.

Mid 70s. Light breeze with occasional gusts. Jewel blue sky.

After a morning of chores, Sierra and I headed out for our third ride. This is unprecedented. It's all I can do to convince her to go with me once. But three times?

Incredible.

Cibolo was still reluctant when I went to pull him out, but this time we didn't have to go rounds. He turned and faced me relatively quickly when I cut him out. It's still not like it was - he would come up to me a month ago. I suspect his feet are tender without shoes.

I got him into the alleyway and did a bit of T-touches with him. Since it was windy and since I was clearing off some books earlier in the day, I found my tellington training book, which I'd bought some time ago. I looked up "hard to catch" and "spooks" and one suggestion was to do ear touches. Basically it's two mini massages - one from the poll to each ear tip, and one going around the ear (up from the front base, around the ear and down toward the jowl.

I did both ears and Cibolo dropped his head, closed his eyes and sighed. For the entire ride he didn't spook in the wind. He wasn't particularly forward, but no balking, or barn sour. (Not that we're pushing it much. We've been staying by the barn since we know they are sore - if either starts limping I'd rather not have a 5 mile hike back home.)

I really need to do those touches more often. Not sure if it kept him from spooking, but he was definitely more relaxed than he'd been in days.

Today Sierra was ready to do more cantering. We were just doing short bits yesterday, just warming up the horses. Today, Lily was ready to do more and that's when it got a bit crazy. Since Lily can get chargy, I cantered Cibolo in front of Sierra and Lily. His canter is half a speed up from a trot, really.

That worked until the fourth and final run, when, at the end, I pulled Cibolo over to the side to slow down and Lily just went around us. Sierra pulled back on the reins, but Lily kept at her canter. Sierra kept her head and sat deep, knowing Lily was heading to an area where she'd have to slow down because of the fence line. I didn't really worry, we all know this about our mare. Lily enjoys getting some speed, and the more you canter her, the more she wants to canter. She'll run herself silly. And she does get a head of enthusiastic steam, but she never does anything more than over shoot the ending by 20 yards or so. Sierra knows this too.

She was careful not to pull too hard, knowing she didn't really want a sudden stop. She brought Lily back to a trot, then came around to me, grinning, asking if she was galloping.

Not quite, I said. Were you scared?

At first, she said, but I knew it was going to be okay so I just held on.

Looks like we'll need to do some braking practice with Lily, and probably let her have some round pen time to blow off some speed. Because it's spring.

And spring means it's time to do some more running.

(and I got new reins. but apparently that's another post...)

On the runway

Today I'll be on the runway - starting in Austin, landing in El Paso. I'll just be gone for a day doing a taping and a day of seeing what's happened to my home town.

I grew up in El Paso and during high school moved to my grandmother's cotton farm. That's where I finally got my first horse.

I knew nothing about horses, had never ridden anything but a pony on a line, but I'd run full speed on that horse like you not believe. I have a great photo my father took back then, I'll post it later this week.

I'm going to take advantage of having to do this trip and will spend most of today traveling old roads and finding out how they've changed. My new novel is based in El Paso, and I have been away too long to be able to put you there.

I particularly need to see how downtown has changed.

Anyway, this trip meant that I had a very short runway with Cibolo.

Cibolo, reviewing his runway work.

I wanted to work again on our canter. I want to get that take off right. I don't want to trot 3/4 of the way down the runway and canter 5 steps. I mean you'll never get into the sky with that technique...

Ironically a friend at the stables is having a problem at the canter too.

This is Kelly and Davy. They recently added this red roan, Amigo, to their family (having rid themselves of a completely insane, bucking, quarterhorse).

Amigo (formerly Chili) was a trail horse for the longest time. Amigo refuses to canter. Even on a lunge line.

So Kelly brought out her spurs to try. Amigo found them irritating, but still would not canter. My experience with trail mounts is that the operators never canter those horses - not at all. They want them nice and quiet for the city riders.

I imagine after years and years they have little muscle development for cantering. You notice she also uses a tie down - Amigo is often pulling against it.

Any suggestions? I thought she'd have to get him cantering on a lunge line first, but I'm fairly sure she's pushed him pretty hard. She not hesitant about pushing...

Ladies and Gentlemen, prepare for take off...

Here is Cibolo's runway. We trot up and down this road before and after our rides lately. And earlier in the week we worked on cantering.

This time we did much better, but the take off is still slow.

But no head tossing this time. He always puts his ears back when going into the canter, not pinning, but almost as if he's between a pin and a simple turn back. So I'm not sure if he's still giving some resistance or he's listening. I'm going to have someone else look at it and help me read it right.

Most of the time I think he's checking to see if I'm serious. Once I show him that I'm consistent, that I do mean it every time, I hope that will help more than the canter.

We road the trails alone and I really am starting to enjoy our time alone. I need to push past the next boundry - riding past the very familiar trails to the ones a little further out. Slowly, but surely...

The runway home.

See you all in a few days. Stay safe and ride a horse for me. :)

The proof is in the canter

My relaxed horse.

My friend Rudy has a saying - things break down with horses in the canter. If there's a problem, that's where it's going to be.

It was true today. I took a long lunch hour (I start work at 7:30 and end at 7:00, so I figure I'm due) and went with Stephanie.

Stephanie works in our home office while she is preparing for Vet school and that girl LOVES horses. She's a really good rider and has excellent horse sense. She's been good for me because she reminds me that you simply don't give up. She's so in love with horses that she's ridden some pretty crazy stuff. And still loves it.

She is ALWAYS up for a ride. And she's darn fearless to boot.

So we got to the stables and I went out for my boy.

I guess I'm still pretty excited when I go out to get my horse and he stands there now. It used to be just a few weeks ago that he'd let another horse get between us, or he'd wander off. We'e een played "catch the gelding." But the last 3 times he is standing there, head low for his bridle.

It's either a good sign or he was half asleep.

His manners were impeccable as we came in. No hay snatching. No ignoring my requests to move. Everything we did was soft.

I started him out with some trotting and stopping, just to check the system. It was all good. He was Mr. Manners. Even Stephanie noticed.

Lily, on the other hand, was a bit of a pill. But Stephanie worked her through it. She was a bit put out to be... out, but the worst thing Lily does is turn back toward the barn. You keep her going in circles and she get's it and settles down to do her job.

We didn't have much time, so we just worked the trails, went throu gh the trees, and headed back to the barn. After a few bird startles I was a bit suspicious. Like maybe he was going through the motions. Been there. Done that. I trotted him up and down, and felt like I had him mostly back in hand.

Then it came.

The idea

You know, THAT idea.

Stephanie: "Want to canter 'em away from the barn?"

um, no.

Me: "Sure! I'm kind of working on it, so that would be good."

Come on, Annie. Help me out here.

So, with great reluctance on the part of me AND my horse, but with Annie firmly in the saddle, we cantered down the road first.

Well, we tried. The reluctance on Cibolo's part actually was worse than mere reluctance. In fact he was head tossing and being a huge pill. We got about 5 "canters" before he dropped back into a trot. Twice.

Hmmm. Mr. Manners, aye?

Lily, on the other hand, kicked butt. She motored down the road like there was a barrel at the other end.

Well, clearly I needed to bring Mr. Manners around. Cibolo and I needed a come to Jesus meeting in the Arena.

We went for some cantering runs . It took a good 10 minutes, but we were finally free of reluctance, free of head tossing, and were cantering about consistently.

To be fair to Cibolo, I didn't canter him the last two times we rode, I was so focused on riding the trails alone.

This whole thing has made me discover something sort of lame about myself.

My chicken sh@# self is always around the corner saying "you know, you really don't have time. You can canter next time."

That's the scaredy cat girl. The one that can't even discuss Annie Oakley, let alone pick up a rifle and shoot cookies off yucca plants at 25 yards.

So. Time to send her off to do grocery shopping or cross stitch (I'm actually pretty good with cross stitch) and get on with it. From now on I've got to stop avoiding it.

Everything is fine.

We can canter.

And we need to. Every time.

Sit Down, Annie!

Today I stole away from the intensity of work (we have a big meeting tomorrow) and had a lesson on Cibolo.

For the past few months, I've had a great deal of anxiety about riding, particularly at any gait above a walk. Learning to post helped me have a focus and come to enjoy the trot.

Ha! Sort of like what we do with our horses - give them something to think about and then they won't stay in that nervous place.

But the big leap was at the canter.

I'm trying to remember the last time I cantered freely. I used to canter on Canyon around the arena in our old place. I never worried about cantering him there. In the arena he had a good attitude, only bucked there once when a windy day changed the shape of the barrel.

I think it's been since April.

So I guess it's not surprising that I couldn't remember how to ride a canter. I forgot everything about it. How to sit. How to rock my hips. How to handle the reins. Where to look.

Cibolo has a canter that is just barely above a trot. It's perfect. Easy going, rocking horse, quiet, quiet.

And when I was riding it over the weekend I was a mess.

But today I got a lesson from the trainer. And I finally remembered to SIT DOWN. And I finally got Cibolo to stay in the canter through a series of circles. He kept down shifting and I firmed up my request - but honestly, once I was pushing properly, he stayed in it.

It felt so simple that I couldn't believe I'd forgotten how.

And it wasn't until tonight, when I was coming home from the grocery store that I realized...

I didn't pretend I was Annie Oakley.


I totally forgot. So... it was really me up there...

And I wasn't scared - possibly because I was really focusing on what the trainer was telling me to help me keep the pressure up to keep him from dropping back into the trot.

Focusing removed fear.

It's like a theme or something.

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Today I also figured out how to wash my horse's face with the hose without him going giraffe on me.

But I have to catch an early flight, so I have to go. I'll post some pix tomorrow (or Friday)...

Cantering. Finally. Lily wound update.

(Warning, some gore in this one - picture of Lily's boo-boo below)

Courage and lack thereof:
You know, I've been a pretty major chicken lately. But today I made progress. I cantered in the round pen.

It's the first time I've cantered on Cibolo since we got him, and I have to say, it was like a ten ton load of tension was gone. I didn't do much because I was pressed for time. But two rounds of cantering after none? I don't think my feet touched the ground.

I get irritated at my hesitance to canter. I think I should be doing all this stuff immediately. There should be no delay. I'm a grown up, after all. I'm pretty fearless in most things. This is a different horse and I know what I'm doing.

But I haven't been able to get enough saddle time and felt like I had no seat at all. I had no confidence in my cues.

Today Cibolo was in a great space. He went through his gaits perfectly in our round pen session, no nonsense. I didn't even use a bit and he was so responsive that I was backing him with no effort.

So I'm pretty relieved to be through this hurdle. Maybe not all the way through, but at least on the way.



Lily: Warning, gore ahead.

Lily's cut looks worse. I hydrated it, used peroxide, put some wound cream and swat (I gave her a bath too).

I just don't think it's getting better. Any suggestions? What's your favorite wound cream/salve for something like this?





Sierra hasn't been out to work with her and it shows. She misses her, and just doesn't a good connection with me. She's like - "oh. it's just YOU." LOL

On the up side, her mane looks longer. That's the only thing about Lily that's not beautiful, she has a sort of straggly mane (I've seen a lot of QH with straggly manes, I wonder if it tends to be more common in that breed). But I think it's getting longer!

I've been using this (which smells like bacon and sulfur).

Her mane looks longer to me. But maybe it's just my imagination. It's not like I had the forethought to measure it.

Even her little forelock. Isn't it bushier?

Home:

Speaking of growing things, in celebration of the second day in a row of less than 100 degrees, I potted some plants.

Pray for their survival. I've got a bad rep with plants.

And finally, rest. I got a set of these at the grocery store on 50% off. And today, I blogged from one. :)

Hope you had a great Sunday.