Which horse are you today? AND The Best 30 Bucks I Ever Spent

One thing about having a bi-polar horse is that life never gets dull.   You just never know which horse you are going to go halter up on any given day.   Just when I feel like I can say Trax is changing and calming down, he shows me that No, it was just an act to lull me into a false sense of security.

Today I managed to get up early (not sure I'm loving this plan- LOL) get everyone fed early, slammed two cups of coffee and got out there with halter in hand before it got hot.

Trax saw me coming with the halter....and....bolted to the other side of his pen!

Say what?!?!?

"Um Trax?  You do realize that it is me right?"

So rather than play kissy face with him I just pushed him around a little and then backed off to see if he would lock on.

He did...sort of.

I walked up to him, let him sniff my hand in perfect Dennis Reis fashion, reached up touched his neck, and he spun and took off again.

I expect this kind of crap from Sassy, but he hasn't done it in 2 years. WTH?

So I pushed some more until he showed signs of letting down a notch.  I was finally able to touch him and I gently patted* him on the neck.  Then I put his halter on.

*There are some people who get really snippy about whether you should pet your horse or pat your horse.  I know there is good foundation behind the "only pet your horse theory" but I also believe that there is an exception to that rule and Trax (of course) is that exception.  He and I  both generate a ton of static electricity.  Petting him often results in a very sharp static shock.  Patting him negates this possibility and he prefers it to being petted and then shocked.  It is so bad between us that on really windy days I have to ground myself to a metal pole first before touching him. 

You will be happy to know that although I am a slow learner, I do learn and decided that just jumping right up on him was not the brightest idea today.   So we went to the round pen.

Um Yeah.....definitely one of my better decisions of the week.  "Completely Whacked" is the first phrase that comes to mind.  

I won't bore you with every detail, but we worked through it and then I borrowed from BEC's bag of tricks and just stood there with my arms around him, and stroked his mane (the one place that does not generate static) until he finally sighed, licked and chewed, and rested his head on my shoulder.

Then we went to work.

I was pleasantly surprised once we started riding. He was a little wound up, but not unruly and even the billy goats gruff were not an issue today.  (well not in the sense of spookiness- they still smell)  Once we got feet moving and mind engaged he settled down nicely and after our warm up routine, I was able to lope him around a lot with out him ever once trying to take control.

Once he was able to lope with his head down and super relaxed, I had some things I wanted to try, and I knew the timing was right.

Last year I bought a book by Mike Majors for 30$ at the local tack store.   You might remember seeing this video I posted a while back of him.  Mike wrote a book for Western Horseman about training for Ranch Versatility.  I bought the book before I knew who he was, before I ever saw that video, before my friend Jay ever went to one of his clinics, before any of that...I bought the book, because it looked interesting.  I have flipped through it on and off for the last year, but a few months back I took out, dusted it off and started really reading.

Last night I ran across some exercises for prepping for the lead change by working body control  It was detailed out in a way that made sense to me, so I thought I would give it a try today.  Basically you start at a walk in a circle.  At one side of your circle you tip your horses nose to the outside of the circle just a tad, then you pick up the shoulder and counter bend him (or her) into your figure 8.  Once you have changed sides, you go into your circle in the other direction. You do this in both directions until your horse is soft and supple, and gives easily.

Because we do a ton of leg yields and side passing already, doing this at a walk was pretty darn easy.  However, stepping it up to a trot, as he says to do in the book is quite a bit harder.  But pretty soon we were executing it with ease.  I was actually quite proud of my guy.   The next step is to do it at a slow lope, only when you ask for that counter bend you are actually asking for the lead change.  The key, he said is weight distribution.  You have to make sure that you a) are not looking down at the horses shoulder (which I do every-single-time)  and b) put your weight on the opposite pocket of the change you are asking for. So if I am asking for a left change, I want my weight on my right pocket.

Okay, it sounds simple right?  Wrong! But there were a few times where I remembered all the pieces and our lead changes were coming together.   We still had to break down for a step to get it done, but I could tell that he was understanding what I was asking and trying hard to do it right.

I think that I can take this new information back to Melody, and use it to refine my lead changes with her.  I mean she pretty much does them automatically, but they are smoother if asked for correctly, and if my weight is where it is supposed to be.  Now that I have a better concept of what I am really trying to do, I think I can pull it off.

This is the first time I have been able to find any thing that really broke down the process in a way I could understand.

He has lots of other very cool exercises in his book for gaining softness in your horse. Many of which I intend to work on with Trax...well with all of my horses.  I had planned on doing some of them today, but I guess I should have reread the items I have highlighted (yes I'm one of those people who highlights and post it tags) this morning, so that it was fresh in my memory. After all I am still a slow learner!  As I put these into action I will share them here.

After we finished that exercise, we did some trail stuff and even did our gate- billy goats and all.  It is high time we got over those billy goats. They aren't going away, so we may as well learn to live with them.  I just wish there was some way to get past the smell...UGH!


I need to take some time tomorrow and work on his feet.  They are getting uneven again, which is effecting his movement.

Now, it is time to go take a dang nap.

Maybe....Just Maybe

I knew I had lots to do Sunday, and since Saturday,  my ride on Trax had been cut short by having to give "lessons" to the "experienced" rider who came out to ride Killian the day before, I decided to try to hit the desert early.  I had to be back before noon to go with my son somewhere.  I had to get home and get pens cleaned, and I knew that CNJ was coming at 3:30 to help me with my ground driving.

So as soon as I could we were saddled up and ready to go. I rarely ever ground work him before desert riding. This time was no different I saddled up, and we headed down the road.  He is so ploddy when we ride out alone.  A little barn sour I'd say.  I don't really fight the issue except to ask him to walk a little faster, since most of that portion of our ride is concrete or asphalt.

But once we hit the gate it is all business.  He knows it, and doesn't seem to mind one bit.  We kick up to the long trot and head out.  I'll tell ya, one of the things I love most about my horse is that when I say go....we go, and there is no peddling required.  The only time he even considers slowing down is if we hit a rocky area and it hurts his feet.  but I generally try to steer him around those.

At first we just go in straight lines.  He always starts out head high, I assume looking for predators, but it doesn't take too long to get him to drop his head and stretch out. Once he does that then we start weaving our way in and out of trees, through washes, up and down hills. I am constantly looking for ways to make our work in the arena translate to desert riding.  We never take the same path twice so he can not anticipate what I am going to ask. He has to follow my cues.

Every so often I will throw in some loping with some lead changes and lots and lots of stopping.  I especially like to turn him towards home, ask him to lope, stop him after 20 feet and then turn him back the other way.  He doesn't love it when I do that, but he handles it.

At one point yesterday, we were loping a long and I dropped my rein.  I instantly went to the bad place in my head, a million bad scenarios flashed through my mind in an instant I thought I was going to be sick.  This all happened in a matter of 2 seconds.  By the tick of 4 seconds I had my completely calm horse standing still while I reached down and picked up my rein.  Meanwhile praising the hell out of my horse.

Say what?????

Filed that away for one of those "Huh, imagine that." moments, and moved on.

We worked on our leg yields and he still struggles initially from the right, but if I can get him to give me one good step and release, then we are golden from then on.

We tootled around, moved some cows, talked on the phone, stopped for a pee break, and of course a photo shoot

Did you hear that?

I definitely heard something!

Seriously...I could stare at my horse all day long! 

Then we started riding again. Of course the minute we head towards home he really stretches out that trot, which is fine with me as long as he carries him self correctly.  He does not get a choice in the matter.  However, because he basically is just making a beeline for home, this is when we really mix things up.  I do so much stopping, bending, pushing, transitions, and lots and lots of backing up.  Because he is just wanting to ignore me and go forward, this is when it seems to be the most important that I keep his mind engaged.

 At one point I backed him into a little dead tree which reached up and poked him right in the butt. Normally he would have left town and looked back 100 miles later.  This time he jumped forward just a touch, turned around to see what was behind him, and then stood there.  Again I thought, "Hmmm, that is strange."

Once home I threw him out in the pasture and got some other stuff done.  Then I went out to the pasture with my halter. At first he ran to the opposite end of the pasture, I walked towards him some, then I backed up and he came towards me.  I walked forward again and he trotted back to the front of the pasture.  I thought, "Crap gonna have to send him down to the catch pen."  Then he stopped and so I stopped. He took a step towards me, so I waited.  Then he let out a big sigh. So I walked right up to him and put the halter on him.

This sort of behavior has been completely unheard of in the entire time I have owned this horse. I have done it with a string before, but a halter means work to him, so usually he runs.  I took him to my spare pen and gave him a treat for being such a good boy.  Then I kicked the other two horses out so I could start cleaning pens. You should have seen the look on his face when they got to go out and he didn't.  Ya know how some times you can look at your horse and hear exactly what they are thinking?  This was one of those times.  Basically it was WTH???

So then CNJ arrived and we got right to work.

He was a little confused at both of us in the round pen, but it was necessary so that she could get a feel for what cues I use for him.  Then she put the surcingle on him, and I stepped out to let her do her thing.

Here is video 1, where she was just starting out.   I seriously expected more of a reaction out of him with the long reins and having someone behind him.  He was bothered and unsure, but handled it like a big boy, waited for instruction, and once he understood what was required, did exactly what was expected of him.   He almost makes me out to be a liar about his rope fears. But I assure you, other people have seen him lose it over ropes.  I swear it really does happen.

Here is video # 2  Where he is just flipping awesome!  We also did some stuff where we were directly behind him.  He never once over reacted to anything.  He was just cool about it all.

Here are some pictures of me trying my hand at it.  I am not near as handy at this as CNJ. She has mad skills! But with her guidance I did manage to muddle through.

Can you say, "Oooooh Pretty!"

So Thank you CNJ for taking the time to help me with this. This is definitely something we will be working on more.

Now, as you all may recall, I just started Trax on his Mag-restore about a week ago. I started him a loading of dose of 4000mg a day.  2 days ago I upped it to 6000mg a day.  Yesterday I saw a horse that was more like a normal horse.  I think that maybe...just maybe, it is making a difference.

I won't keep him on that high a dose, I will just keep him there for a few more days and then I will taper him back down.

I think I am going to have to start giving him just a little bit more food.  He is lean and fit, but I can see his ribs.  I don't like to see his ribs.

So that was our day yesterday.  Today all the ponies get some pasture time (even the other two got worked this weekend) while I get some of my human responsibilities done.  Like housework, and blogging, and facebooking...lol!

The Contradictory Horse

This is my horse.

He is a jumbled mess of contradictions that I have yet to make sense of.

You often hear of horses who are one sided, and Trax is no different. The problem is that he is one sided for somethings yet the opposite for others.  Which leads me too believe that when he gets "stuck"  it isn't physical at all, but mental.

But with that being said, as I contemplate more and more about that, I realize that I have to put this under a microscope and dissect it to see if that is really the case.  Meaning, that different maneuvers require muscle tone in different areas, and the places where he gets stuck just might be related to the way he is built physically.  So let me see if I can remember them all and list them out.

Lateral flex at a stand still:   He weighs nothing to the left but has trouble with the right. Not as bad as he used to be, but there is an obvious difference.

Flexing at the poll when standing still:  Pretty soft although still wants to push into the bit as the first resort and then goes to dropping his head. We go through this exercise every time we ride and continue it until he chooses to get soft first, but each time is just like it was the day before.  We have to search for it.

Flexing at the poll when moving forward:  About the same as standing still although by the end of the ride his is usually much much better.

Flexing at the right jaw when moving forward:  Okay this is where things get weird.  To the right when moving forward he gives pretty nicely, which doesn't make sense since at a stand still he is heavier on this side.  So I am wondering if what I am seeing is him actually giving his face or just arching the whole body.

Flexing at the left jaw when moving forward:  This has always been stiff and awkward for him...until yesterday.  I will elaborate on that more later.

Side passing from left to right:  We are lucky to get it done

Side passing from right to left:  Smooth like butter, with very little pressure at all.  In fact he does this so well he will often go from left to right even when I am asking for right to left.  And yes I am making sure that I open my opposite leg to give him room to move, but he still just moves into the pressure.

Roll back from right to left: Makes it 3 steps and falls out

Roll back from left to right: Can do a full circle without too much trouble.

Lead change from left to right: All I have to do is sit down in my seat, let him break his lope for one stride, cue with my leg, and he does the change almost on his own.

Lead change from right to left:  We struggle just a little bit more. He will still do it, but often I have to break down his lope for a couple of steps. (this doesn't make sense to me since when I got him he was a completely left lead horse)

Loping in a circle to the left:  He generally stays pretty calm and will rate.

Loping a circle to the right: Is when he wants to get chargey.

I'm sure there is stuff I am forgetting, but those are the things I have noticed so far.

So fast forward to yesterdays ride; we went to the desert and started by just long trotting and "checking fence".  It wasn't our fence to check but since we were out there and I really wanted to see how much room we have to ride in, I rode one fence line for a while.  Of course there are always trees and bushes around and I used those "obstacles" for our serpentines.

Checking fence

I did find the gates that will allow me into other sections, and they all have signs that say, "Please Close Gate" Which to me means, go on through just don't let our cows out."

We found open areas where we did some loping in circles, some lead changes, and just different stuff.  Anytime I felt him wanting to get chargey we did a lot of "Lope n Stops"  and that would usually take care of that.

We went through the water, we did some spins, we just did anything I could think of.  We stopped for a minute at a stock tank but he didn't want to drink, however when we got to the big "pond" he went right in and got a nice long drink.

We found stuff.

And then we headed back.  Of course being who he is, the minute we headed home he though that work time was over....he was wrong.

When we got to the gate which takes me back to the neighborhood, I asked him to side pass in each direction before I got off.  He WOULD NOT side pass from right to left.

So I took him back out to the desert and we loped a couple circles, did some lead changes, and then stayed there until he would side pass either direction.  Then we made a beeline for the gate....well sort of.

It was more like ten steps forward, side pass to the right five steps, side pass to the left five steps, ten steps forward, side pass left, side pass right...etc, etc, etc.  And we did this all the way to the gate.  By time we were done, he was sooooo soft in the left jaw (just like when he is standing still) and his side pass from left to right was the most gorgeous thing I have sever seen him do.  He was soft in both the jaw and the poll and crossed over correctly.  (remember this used to be his hard side)  But now he struggles going right to left.

I keep trying to determine if it is something I am doing.  Am I holding the reins different?  Am I using my legs different?  I just don't know.   But it makes sense for him to be softer on the left side for this, since he is softer standing still. But this just happened yesterday. So it really doesn't make sense to me at all.

So anyway, we got to the gate and he gave me two very nice side passes, and I got off and let him rest.

Then we headed home and he was so nice an relaxed, and I was enjoying just being up there.....and then the donkey came to the fence and my horse lost his ever loving mind again!

But just for a second and I got him moved away and standing still enough for me to get off of him and take him to the fence where the donkey lived.  Unfortunately the donkey was a ghost, because for some reason I couldn't find him. He literally disappeared.  However a little mini came to the fence and he and Trax sniffed noses, which was almost as good, since he doesn't like mini's either.

After that he was a little spooky just knowing that "Ghost Donkey" was going to sneak up behind him. We spooked at goats, and dogs, and so I went back to side passing him back and forth, and that took his mind off of scary things.

I used my pedometer to track our ride, it was 13.85 miles, and 3.45 hours.  You can see the parts where we were training...they are the squiggly parts.

It seems I have developed and allergy to sun, or perhaps a sensitivity.  I am broke out in hives now, not just where the sun was on me, but all over my legs.  I googled it, and learned that taking an antihistamine before sun exposure will help with it.

*disclaimer- anyone who knows me and knows how much trouble I have with left and right, will appreciate how difficult it was to keep this all straight in my mind as I wrote it down.

The Phone Call

I got a text today from my friend and former trainer, Jay.

He asked me to call him tonight so we could discuss the "incident".

I was pretty sure he was going to yell at me, but he didn't.   He actually just wanted give me some things to do to fix this problem, rather than just putting a band aide on it, which is basically what I have done in the past.

I think I underestimated just how deep this fear ran, and just how deep this horse can and will check out if he needs too.  You see, I have managed to convince him that "I" won't hurt him with a rope, but I did not ever take the time to show him that ropes are not the enemy.  I also never took the time to address his issues with having something crashing around behind him.

Case in point:  You might recall this day when riding with BEC and Simon, when he put a stick in my eye because the other horses were right on his butt, and he was in a very narrow ditch with no place to go but forward.

So before we drag a single anything we go back to the round pen, and I learn how to rope.  I don't have to be good at it, just good enough to rope my saddle horn, hopefully catch his foot, bump his butt with it, just do all kinds of big scary things with a rope.   I have got to get more comfortable with it.

I may have to get help with this part.  Luckily there are no shortages of ropers in my neighborhood.

What he said is that at some point in time I am going to have to let him get all wrapped up in that rope in a controlled and safe situation, and then let him unwind himself out of it without just running away. But first I have to start small, and just let him get to the point of being okay with it flopping around all over him and walking around and not giving a dang.  Then we move to the bigger stuff. When I can ask him to walk out, and wrap a rope around his foot or his butt or where ever and not have him react at all, then I can take it further. So no, I am not just going to go in there and tie him up in knots and say, "there ya go, now get out of it." Baby steps will be the key!

The next thing I have to do is (CNJ will appreciate this as she has mentioned it herself) to two rein drive him from the ground, and I have to do it until it means nothing to him.  Until he is okay with stuff going on behind him, it will not be safe to drag anything....period.  He said until I can get into either eye (of his) from either side and not have him bolt, then he isn't ready.

He did say that he could come down and have us dragging stuff in 15 minutes, but that the deep seated fear would still be there, and we have to get to the core of it if I am going to help this horse.  Because fear that deep will rise to the surface at the most in opportune moments.  Even if I do all of this, there is always a chance that it will resurface, but the more things we address now, the more confidence I can build in him, the better it will be and the easier it will be to bring him back if he gets scared again.

Oh how I wish he could come down and help me with this!  Jay is gifted.  But Jay is also very busy and hardly has time for his own horses, much less my crazy old paint.

So there it is, and I trust Jay when he tells me what to do, and when he says no short cuts, I will believe him.  This means we will not be competing at the next stock horse show...or at the very least, we will not attempt the log drag. I'd rather take the penalty.   I am still on the fence if we will even do the next clinic...saving that decision for the day before.

I did ride today and he is doing pretty good.  It was not an eventful ride, which is always good.  Nothing to write home about either, but we had just a very small amount of time so I was careful not to get into anything that could turn into an argument.   My time was cut short because TC's grand daughters were there and wanted to ride Killian.  Far be it from me to turn down a little girl who wants to ride.   Killian was not on his best behavior and so I ended up tuning him up for a few minutes after they were done.  Not that he was bad, but he could of been better.  Plus he was saddled and had not been ridden in over a week. So I rode him for a bit, and then got Trax out and mostly just trotted around, moved his shoulders back and forth did some lead change work and of course....lots and lots  of stopping.

Oh and we did start with the round pen again. I think we are going to keep with the round pen warm up for a while.  It really gives me a chance to move him and control him. More so than on the end of the long line.  Seems strange I know, but with the fence around him my energy means more.  With him on the end of the rope and me pushing my energy at his hip it is too easy for him to just fall out, move backwards and let that energy float on by.   This way he has to give in to it, and today it took a whole lot less time for him to lock on to me, and for me to draw him in.

Once I draw him in, I mentally break him into sections and then move those sections of his body.  It was interesting today because at one point I was moving his shoulder (without touching him) across, away from me and he kept wanting to flip his butt onto me, so I would turn and literally glare at his back leg and it was like he could feel it because he would move it away again.   I kind of had to back my energy off a little on his shoulder so he could move easier.  At one point we did a full circle, pivot on the hind while I pushed his shoulder...and never touched him once.   That was a first and I was quite pleased with him.

What I see is that in order to move forward with Trax I'm going to have to back up.  I have a tendency to short cut the ground work with Trax because I get so focused on what I want to teach him while riding.  I lost sight of the basics, and since they have never been deeply ingrained in his mind, it leaves room for holes.  This does not mean that I'm going to stop riding in lieu of ground work, it just means that I'm going to have to do both.

One thing Jay and I talked about was the lead changes.  I told him about how yesterday Trax was trying so hard to please me, that sometimes when I asked him to break down to a trot just long enough to change leads, a couple of times he just stopped dead in his tracks.   Jay asked what I did, when he did that.   I praised the hell out of him, because to me, that stop meant that he was working hard and trying to pay attention. That stop is a million times more important to me than any lead change.

He said, "Good girl, you are getting it."

I'm feeling okay about my horse and our future.  I'm not silly enough to believe that we are going to have a stellar career in anything, but I think I can at least get him to a point where he is safe...and fun, to ride.


*If anyone reading this would like a better understanding of what I mean when I talk about using my energy to move my horse, I strongly urge you to get your hands on some Dennis Reis video's.  He is the master at this. It changes your round pen from just a place to run your horse in circles and turns it into a tool and a great classroom.  It is a complete different approach to "lunging" your horse.  Not that other people don't do similar stuff, but I just love the way he explains it.

Bi-polar?????

I was going to call this post "day 2 of my 30 day challenge"  But since I was never actually challenged to do 30 in 30 it didn't quite seem appropriate.   It was, however, suggested by BEC that I do just that. Ride him for 30 days and then make a decision on where he goes from there.

So I am calling yesterday "Day 1"  Today is "Day 2"

I agree with what a few people said about getting him out of the arena and too the desert more.  I will definitely do that.  

However, today I had to work Sassy too, so today it was all arena.  

Here is the short recap on Trax today.....

He is bi-polar.

Not really, he actually was just more like his normal self.  He was responsive, and willing, and even actually trying really hard to figure out what it is I want from him.

I, on the other hand, was smarter about what I was asking him to do, how I was asking, how long I asked him, and rewarding immediately for the slightest try.

We went back to the round pen for a minute, just to do some liberty work, and the minute he quit moving with his brain outside of the pen, and locked on to me, I stopped him, drew him into me, and he followed me around the pen with no halter on.  I moved his body parts around from the ground, without touching him, and then we rode.

We did not do any rope work today.  No, I am not scared...I'm just recuperating, and plus I need more time for rope work.

Riding was lots of long trotting and collection, and stretchy trots, and shoulder pushing serpentines.  We did a ton of stopping, and a tiny bit of loping.  Not once did we make a full circle without changing something.  It was either, half a circle, then stop.  A full circle then lead change. A full circle and then a small circle at a slower speed, then a lead change, and go the other direction.

He is actually starting to get the lead changes.  In fact from left to right he breaks down to a trot for one step, changes his leads and then goes.  It is pretty darn smooth and easy, almost effortless.  For some reason he has more trouble changing from right to left.  But we got some really good ones.

He is still wanting to back out of his side passes from left to right, but after we had been riding for a while and he gave me a beautiful lead change in both directions, we were just walking and I asked for the side pass in both directions and he was smooth and easy both ways, so that was when I called it quits and walked him out the drive and down the road and then back.

It was a nice ride, I enjoyed it, and I hope that he did too.  A couple of times he was trying so hard to get things right, that when I was asking for him to break down his lope to the trot to change leads, he thought I wanted him to stop and literally stopped dead in his tracks.  It was cool, and made me laugh.

I think there was only one time where he really wanted to go out of control with me, but I shut him down so quick, he never had time to really grab a hold of that mentality.   I have learned some valuable lessons in our last few rides. Number one being that lots of loping will never be a good warm up for him.  Lots of mental work is the best, and lots of stopping.  I should have known that.  After all, going forward has never been the issue.  Stopping always has, so I should have been doing this all along.

Well life is trial and error, and you can't learn without errors.

Now time has run out for me, and my stupid J-O-B is calling my name.

1.25 Hours and the Eleventh Commandment

I rode Killian this morning, and in exactly 1.25 hours I was able to fix all of his major problems.  It only took one time of pushing him sideways about 30 feet for him to stand still for mounting.  He now stops when asked at any speed, backs up straight, lopes out the minute I ask (although almost always on the incorrect lead), moves off my leg, and does the most beautiful rollbacks of any horse I have ever ridden.  I can move his hip from right to left, but cannot budge it from left to right.  I personally could care less.   He did however have an epic fail at the gate.  We did eventually get it done, but it was never right.

We will however visit that again.  The sad part of all of this is that the first time TC or Simon get on him, he will be ruined again.  But such is life I guess.

One thing I learned with Killian is about why he backs up crooked.  It is because he is anticipating the push on his shoulders.  It was the easiest fix in the world.  If he backed to the left, expecting the roll back to the right, I promptly rolled his shoulders the opposite direction.  Once he realized that it was going to be like that, he backed up straight every single time.

He did well so I hosed him down (which he hates) and then put him away.

Then I got Trax out.

I shall refer again today to the book "Healing Shine" by Michael Johnson. (http://www.michaeljohnsonbooks.com/healingshine.html

I'm sorry if you all are sick of hearing about it but there are just too many real to life things that come out of that book. Or at least real to me.

Those of you who have read the book will recall the 11th commandment.

The 11th commandment states, "Thou shall not let the horse win."

In his book he goes on to tell how all good little christian cowboys and cowgirls know this commandment by the time they are 10.

Today we broke that commandment into a gazillion little pieces.  It is shattered all over my arena buried in the dirt, with mismatched hoof prints stamped all over it.  It is also covered in sweat and tears.  Sweat from both of us and tears from me.

I am exhausted.

On the bright side, some good things did come to light for me today.

If a person could ever gain control of this horses feet at any speed other than a walk, they would find themselves with a horse who contains a gold mine in untapped energy, stamina, speed, and potential to do anything they wanted him to do.

The only down side to this realization is the other realization that in order to get control of his feet you have to get into his brain, and that brain is locked inside a cast iron shell with an unpick-able lock and I have yet to find the key to open that lock.  I know there is one, but its location still alludes me.

We rode for well over 2 hours.  Most of that 2 hours was just spent racing around the arena.  Although in the beginning it was just walk, trot and obstacles and he was great. Then I asked for the lope and the race was on.  I finally got tired of just being along for the ride and started asking him to slow down. That didn't work so I asked for more speed.

HOL-EE-SHIT!

All I did was squeeze just a little and he took off like a shot, stretched out and just flew.  I managed to hold on and kept waiting for him to get tired, but it never happened.  He never did slow down, nor did he get tired.  I finally did get tired, and started trying to pull him into smaller circles to slow him down.  His circles got smaller, but never got any slower.

Finally I touched his nose to his butt and he spun to a stop, dang near throwing me off to the side in the process.

From that point forward there was nothing I could do with him.   Finally I just asked him to walk.

At one point I reached down to adjust my reins and he tried to bolt. So our next lesson was strictly getting him to stay at a walk, while I played with the tail end of my reins.  Once he came back to reality to recognize that I was still there, we did some trotting. It was pretty much a fight the entire time.

Finally I got sick of it all and just took him out and walked him down the road, doing lots of stops and back ups.  Then we came home and called it a day.

He won today.  He won big time.  I'm going to have to do some thinking on this and figure out what I need to change up.   If I never asked him to go faster than a trot, then we would not have these issues.  But that is not how life works unless you are a horse on a dude ranch.  He is not a dude ranch horse though, he is my horse, he is a broke horse, and by golly he needs to act like it at least once in a while!

I just might dose him with some mare-calm before I ride him next time.  Just to see what happens.

Here is the thing I noticed about today.  Usually after a while, Trax goes to his happy place, he slows down naturally, drops his head and from that point forward the lines of communication are open.

Today he never got there.  I honestly would like to know why.

Finally a Ride!

It feels like it has been a really long time since I've ridden Trax, but only a week actually.  His tummy is doing much better so after I got my pens cleaned I decided to saddle up.

He was not thrilled about being pulled from his social time in the pasture, and I almost felt bad for him...but then I remembered him throwing me the middle hoof this morning and got over feeling bad pretty quick. When I say throwing me the middle hoof, what I mean is that quite often when I let him out in the pasture he aims a high kick right towards my head. He never gets very close, but I would still rather that he did it the other direction. Stinker!

It was pretty hot today, in the 80's I think, which isn't really hot, but for Feb, is pretty dang warm.  So with that in mind I didn't think we would ride all that long, but then as we got going and things were going well, I just kept with it for a good 2 hours.

We started with just standing still. I would pick up on the reins and wait for him to drop his head.  Sometimes I had to wait him out but eventually it was his first choice so I called it good.   Then we went to work on the things that I learned from BEC and at the clinic.  I think we made some progress, but anymore I just don't know.

I will say that once I let him have his "run wildly around the arena time" things really started to seem to progress.  We worked on those long low trots and  I can tell the difference just in the way I bounce. The less bounce the better he is moving.

We worked on stops and the beginning process of lead changes. We worked on our spins and roll backs as well.  He did give me a couple of full spins, but they aren't actual spins. He can do them from a stand still.  So really it is more like 360 roll backs. LOL  But he wasn't coke bottling so I won't complain too much.

We also did the gate. For a horse that used to hate working gates, he sure does love them now.

He really seems to be trying to get this stuff right...most of the time.  The only time he seems like he is just being a butthead is when we work on the real spins.  Today I got that long and low trot and then kept tightening my circle, but I can tell he is expecting it and pretty soon he falls backwards when trying to give me that step. I don't know if this is a by product of me teaching him to spin from a stand still, or what.  But I just cannot seem to keep the forward momentum.

He did give me some great stops at a lope today, well great for him.  He is still stopping on the front for those.  At a trot I am figuring out how to get the hind end to be the stop, but I think I haven't got my timing down right for the lope yet.

All in all it was a pretty good ride and I was not unhappy with our progress.   He got a nice hose down, a roll in the sand and back to the pasture with his herd.

Sassy was out there with one of her boots turned completely sideways!  I don't know how she does these things!

Now it is time for me to go get a shower. TC is taking me out to dinner for V-day.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

This is my "Thinking Face"

I finally got to ride today, and some good stuff did happen. Not super exciting but some good.  We did work on the collection exercises as instructed in the video I watched the other day, and as expected it took him a long while to finally get with the program.  But he did...sort of.

Since "sort of" wasn't quite what I was looking for, I decided to switch things up a bit.  First I went ahead and gave him his "run in crazy circles" time.  It wasn't all about him, while he was running in crazy circles, I practiced riding with out flapping my arms like some sort of wounded bird.  I kept my elbows at my side, but then managed to stay relaxed too.  It was a good exercise for me.  Mean while he ran crazy circles and went to his happy place.

Once he leveled out and started to breathe we worked on rate. Big circles, fast. Small circles slower.  It wasn't bad. In fact it was very nice.  His head was not straight in the air, but nice and level.  He followed my eye, departed on the correct leads.  I've got no complaints.

Then we went back to our collection.  It was better, but there was still room for improvement.

We worked on our circles some, I did't really push it hard.  I had watched another video that Mr. Pieper had done on this subject and tried to apply some of those principles to our ride.  I never really asked for more that a few steps in the circle. He gave them too me, but they are still awkward and stiff.

Then we just kind of rode around and did stuff.  I can't tell you what we did, we just did.  A little of this, a little of that. Some stopping some backing up, he was.....sticky on those back ups.

He is trying on his stops 90% of the time.  At a walk or a trot he REALLY tries, at a lope, he forgets until I remind him.  So we will have one bad then a couple of good.  I think we just need more practice on that.

Then I had a thought. We were just sitting there and I asked him to collect without actually going forward.  I realize that technically that is not collection, but I have a new theory. Before I really push push push with the forward moving collection I want to instill a thought in his brain.  If he feels ANY contact on his mouth at all, if he drops his head, he will be rewarded.  So we stood there for a long while, probably 15 minutes or so. I would pick up the reins, add some contact, and when he dropped, or even thought about dropping, I released.  Eventually we got some good results.  Then I applied that to "forward".

Better, much better.

I did ride him in the D-ring snaffle today, and I wonder if that is the cause behind his "sticky"?  He is much more responsive (front to back) in the Mylar.  Side to side is a bit different and it has been  mentioned to me that when working on those circles the snaffle might be better.

I can't tell you if it is or not.

Before we rode I worked him on the ground. I did not just lunge him but also did what BEC calls the horsemanship moves. Mostly I just asked him to complete the spins slowly on the ground.  I am starting to notice something.  He can get 2, sometimes 3 steps by crossing over front but then always resorts to crossing behind again. I can't help but wonder if it isn't time to get him a chiro visit.   There are lots of things I have been reading lately that make me want to examine the possibility that some of his performance issues are physical.  Not only what BEC is going through with Moon, but some of what I read in Mike Majors book, and a story I just recently read over at Mugwump Chronicles.  I have to admit that it is kind of odd that all these things came up for me to read within a few days of each other.

One of things that Mike said in his book when talking about "buying your RV prospect".  He talked about short backed, mutton withered horses with thick necks. Not that they are not good horses, but just that sometimes they are not quite as physically capable of doing certain things.  That is Trax.  In fact I tried to put my other saddle on him today...HA!  It wouldn't go down over his big fat withers.

Mugs talked about a horse that could not back up well due to the way he was built.  It was interesting to say the least.

Now this is not me saying that I'm giving up on this horse, because I am not.  There are a lot of things that he needs to learn to do regardless of what his "career" is.   Regardless of trail or arena, he has to stop, he has to side pass, he has to be soft in hand.  Period.

I have some stuff formulating in my head.  I wonder if his asymmetrical front feet are because he has one leg slightly shorter than the other...perhaps that is why he struggles with some of these moves.  I wonder if he is out of place from those major wrecks that he had way back when.  I wonder if he needs a better rider for a bit to give him the clear cues he needs to understand.  Lots of things to wonder about. Some of it I may never know, but it sure couldn't hurt to try the chiro...right?

I also worked on his front feet today until I drew blood....my own of course. One of these days I will remember to leave my gloves in the tack room!  I don't know that I did much good, or if I did harm.  I just tried to clean him up a little.  I need some guidance again...and a hoof stand! (I'll be calling you next week Anne LOL)

Trax is a good horse, and dang it he is trying so hard to get it right.  I won't say he never has his bad days, but for the most part he only wants to get along, so I don't find myself trying to decided if he is just being a jerk or just not capable.  Trax is a lot of things but a jerk is not one of them. (not usually anyways)

I still believe we will get there, and my goals have not changed, these are just things that run through my head.

Stop!

Today I started with Killian because he is getting a little rude and pushy and also because riding him first makes me appreciate my more athletic paint horse. 

I do not ask much of Killian, he has earned his position as keeper of the youngsters. He puts up with giving "pony rides" to anyone who shows up asking to ride. He takes care of Simon out on the trails and on the rare occasion that TC rides he takes care of him to.   

With all of that being said I do expect him to stop when asked, move off my leg and stand still when mounting. The last time I rode him he refused to do any of those things.  So today we worked on that. I used the technique I am using on Trax. Walk stop back up. I noticed that he also backs up crooked but in the opposite direction as Trax.  Although for killian, asking him to move his shoulder is the key to straightening out where as with Trax it is more pressure on a rein. 

We did a couple of mounts and by the third one he did pretty well although I cheated a little by keeping his nose in the corner of the fence. 

It did not take long before he was stopping like he used too and moving off my leg pretty smoothly. When he was acting more respectful I asked for one more good stop and then called it quits. 

Then it was Trax's turn. Before I mounted up I said my affirmations out loud to my horse. Then we started with some ground work. Trax suddenly forgot how to move in a circle and was sure that the long lead line was going to attack him. 

Seriously horse? 

We worked through it and eventually it was time to ride. 

We started slow and easy and dang he was giving me those instant stops. Walk or trot it didn't matter if I sat it right he gave it to me. It was pretty darn nice. 

I asked him to lope to the right. It felt weird and awkward and I couldn't figure out why. I even wondered if it had just been so long since I had loped him that it just felt wierd.  

As I type this I am wondering how many of you are guessing what the problem was? 

If you guessed the wrong lead you are correct. 

I looked down and thought "well duh"

Feeling where he was at mentally I knew that it was the wrong time to ask for a stop or a slow down to try to switch so I just turned him to the left and he smoothed right out. 

So we continued to lope and I asked for rate and chose our circles and pretty soon he was feeling pretty good in my hands. 

I moved to the center of the arena and asked for a stop and he ran right through it. 

There was a battle of wills, words were exchanged and I said, " No, you will stop and then you back up and you will back up with purpose!" 

And when we finally stopped we both let out a big sigh. I petted his neck and told him he was a good boy. 

We spent a long time doing correct lead departures, lope half the arena, or sometimes a circle and then I'd say,"ready and whoa".  Always in a different spot or different direction that the last.  After about 3 times he was stopping at the "Annd". Before I even sat the stop which through me out of my seat a little. 

I couldn't get mad at that cuz dang he was trying so hard to please me.  I just shortened my cue a little and he started nailing it.  

We took a break from stopping and worked our gate. He really does that pretty well. 

Then it was time to work on our spins and man we  just fell apart.  When I start with the circle he is trying to anticipate the command and in doing so his hip falls out and it just goes down hill from there. It didn't matte which direction we just couldn't get it together.  The next thing I knew we were just trotting blindly all over the place and so I had to get us lined out again. 

We went back to stops and backing and the moving the shoulder and change directions. After a few of these I was able to move his shoulders a little better.   

We went to our loping stops again and he was doing real good, but this time each time we came to a place we had stopped before I could feel him anticipating again.  I just pushed him through and then one time he gave me the best stop yet so I called it a day. 

Truthfully I was so happy with our ride and if we keep going along his good I have no doubt that we will reach our goal. I wa thinking that we had a month and a half but actually it is 2.5 months so that is even better. Maybe by then we will have our problem with the spins worked through. 

Day 2 of the Makin Trax Makeover

Today is a 2 post day. The first one being on Sassy.

If you look to the right of my page, on the side bar, I have listed my positive riding affirmations.  I read them before I go out to ride, and I say them to both myself and my horse before I ever even mount up.  I cannot tell you if it is helping yet, as today was the first day. Positive affirmations have worked for me in other areas of my life so I expect it to work here too.  I tend to buy in to my own self talk sometimes, and I have to get over that.


I knew I did not have a ton of time for riding today, and certainly not any time for major battles so my goals were few but my standards were high.

I did not expect him to do anything other than continue doing what we did the other day....

stop instantaneously.

Today we did not lope a single step.

Well that is not entirely true.  He did overshoot my cue  for forward, a couple of times but if he did, I insisted that he stop and then backed him up.  His effort to comply, although not perfect, was real. He wants to get along for sure.

But mostly it was just walk, stay soft, collect, stop, back up, and then I would change things up a bit.  Sometimes it was "execute the turn"  Sometimes it was "Now stand still"

We rode for about an hour.  That is a short ride for him.

When I said, "now stand still" I would do all manner of things to get him to move, except of course cueing him to move.  I leaned forward, adjusted my seat from side to side, leaned back, flopped my arms around, you name it, I tried it.  One time he moved, and I stopped him and backed him up. From then on, he stayed as still as a stone.

Good Boy!

90% of his stops were very nice, a few weren't but we worked through them.

We did try a few at a slow trot, I set my goal at 3 good ones at the trot. When I had them, I didn't do it again.

We are having trouble with the back ups. Not that he doesn't want too, but that keeping him in a straight line is challenging for me/us.  I try pushing with my legs to get him back over but it doesn't seem to be working. I have not figured out if I am using more pressure on one side than the other, or just what the deal is yet.

Sometimes I wonder if he isn't wiggling all over to prep for the turn, or because he isn't sure which way I want him to go.  With that in mind I decided to ask for just a little less.

First I try to make sure that I have even pressure with both legs, and then if I can get 3 steps that are straight, I stop.  We did that a few times right at the end of our ride, and the last one was a gorgeous stop, a nice 3 step straight back up, so I jumped off right there and called it a day.  Next time I'll ask for more straight steps.

The thing I have learned about Trax is there is such a thing as over kill.  Once he gets something, he usually gets it, and as long as I am consistent, he will be too.  Beating stuff into his head until he is sick of it usually back fires on me.

I suspect that is true for most horses.  I'm sure he isn't special.  (well to me he is)

Somewhere in the middle of all of this I did work on the circles and asked for a few steps of a spin.  One time I think I got 3 or 4. They were awkward and choppy but I could tell the difference in him. He is trying so hard to get it right.  When I started in with the smaller circles, he knew exactly what I was going to ask of him, I could feel that.

His hip falls out after a few steps though. I have to figure out why.  It might be because I let it.