training

Okay, it wasn't the greatest show weekend in history, but that's what makes for good stories.
1) Katy's truck broke down friday morning... luckily no horses were being hauled. She even made her ride (barely).$400 and one new alternator later, all is well.
2) Penny had a real bad stomach ache and turned green during her warmup. She scratched. Good thing, too, because the lightening was so close we could feel it on our necks. And there's nothing like throwing up at X instead of halting, and then being struck by lightening.

Oh boy is it hot. Everyone's talking about it. Not only is it hot, but it's very smoky, since half of the west is currently on fire and it seems to settle into the valley here around this time of the year. All three of the horses have eye infections from a combination of smoke and flies. Nothing serious, just drippy eyes and a little mucus forming in the corners. I'll head over to the vet's tomorrow and pick up a tube of the Gentak that we use in their eyes this time of year. I got out to ride this morning by 8:00 am, which was almost too late.

Scot and I are in the midst of our bi-annual ritual: Twice a year, during the fourth of july and on New Year's Eve, we spend the evening in the barn feeding the horses hay. That's because, where we live, not only do people have all kinds of fireworks (mostly illegal), but they also really love shooting off their guns. And somehow they think the law of gravity doesn't apply to them. What goes up, stays up.

I'm on the home stretch! Working hard on finishing my book, The Adult Longeing Guide, which is a compilation of longeing exercises for everyone.

It's been fun to write- I collected the exercises during teaching by wearing my digital recorder in my pocket, since lots of times I'd have a student doing this and that and then forget to come in the house and write it down.

Do you have a favorite training exercise? I'd love to hear about it. What do you like to do to warm up before riding? How do stretch out on horseback?

Write and let me know, I'd love to hear your ideas.

I wish I knew! He's just always been kind of a dink on the longeline. No amount of "forward" energy really comes through for him. The only thing that gets him going in a forward rhythm is me, going Trot, Trot, Trot, Trot (in the rhythm I want). It's pretty weird.

As I work to move up the levels in dressage, it occurs to me just how hard this sport is. I mean really, really, hard. I have such unbelievable break throughs and then such enormously long plateaus. After the last horse show in El Paso, I decided I needed to spend the summer building up B's back muscles. This is a matter of time and patience, plus a lot of cross training. I've been reading Jane Savoie's More Cross Training book, and it's giving lots of ideas for exercises.

Yesterday and today it took Belle three seconds to get in the trailer. I'm so proud of her... We even did the "in the trailer dance" as my friend Bernie calls it--that's when you ask the horse to take three steps forward and three steps back, just move around the trailer, get used to the sounds of her hoofs on the floor and so forth. She was an absolute star! Perhaps it was because she knew I had horse treats in my pocket, but I only rewarded her when she was in the trailer and standing next to me. Not only does she load, but she self-load. I just point to the trailer and she gets in!

The farrier came yesterday--Belle was a pretty good girl, but Baleno's hoofs are a mess. He's got a massive quarter crack running down the outside left. He's had them since I bought him at the auction, but they just keep recurring and changing positions. A couple of years ago we fought one on the inside left. Now the outside left and the inside right have developed them. It's making me a bit crazy--he's not lame, but I fear he will be someday. We've floated them, and now we're going to put eggbars on the fronts for support. Farriery is something I wish I knew more about.

Hooray, my Norwegian Fjord is finally refusing to go in the trailer at home. This may not sound like a good thing, but actually it is because now I can TRAIN her to go in when she doesn't want to, like when we are somewhere else and are hot and tired and really eager to get home. She still goes in easily at home when the trailer is in restaurant mode, but when I act determined to get her in, she refuses. So then I do as my trainer/instructor told me. I hold her with a halter so she faces the trailer and tap her behind until she steps forward. Every time she takes a step I stop tapping immediately, and then repeat.

Okay, so, we took a bit of a hiatus on loading for a few weeks, but today I thought we'd try again. First I brushed up her ground work, making sure she was longeing correctly, and leading her all over the property. She did great at the longeing, and I even got her to canter a bit (she's so smart) for the first time. Now she walks, whoas, trots and canters on voice command on the longe. I also did a bit of natural horsemanship type driving with her--swinging the rope and pointing in the direction I wanted her to go.

After a few attempts at trying to just lead her in (she'd put two feet in and then stop), I decided to try to drive her in. I could tell right away this was what she was comfortable with! Right away she looked like she was ready and eager to just jump in, and after our third attempt (turning, but never letting her go past the trailer--just asking her to step to the side and head off the other way, then turn toward the trailer). I got her walking briskly, swinging the rope and pointing to the trailer and low and behold, she just jumped right in and stood there. I even asked her for a few more steps forward (from outside) so she'd be all the way up to the front. Then I gave her a carrot! We did it twice more, and I'll probably do it again tomorrow. I'm so pleased it didn't turn into a big deal! She learns really fast. Sometimes she stands and stomps, and has a mini-trantrum, and then she just does it!. She's looking more horse-like every day, so I'm thinking of sitting on her pretty soon.