Building a Bridge to No Where

Bridging the communication gap
"Like a Bridge over troubled waters..."

I could go on like this for days...But truthfully I just wanted to tell you about the training bridge we built.  As you can see we used old lumber laying around the yard, so we killed 2 birds with one stone. Cleaned up some of the yard and made a new training tool. There are 3 4x4's underneath, which just happened to be treated with truck bed lining (I dunno why). Then the planks are made mostly out of old water bed sides, and then some left over wood from the barn finished it up. It is heavy as all hell, but sturdy.

I had planned on doing it myself but the minute I mentioned it to TC, he took over the project.  Somehow or another while I was watching him I managed to mess up the back of my knee. Every time I took a step it felt like something was pulling too tight.  Hurt like hell for about an hour. Who knew that supervising could be so dangerous!

Before I/he started this project I went to the clubs tack swap meet.  I didn't buy anything, there just wasn't anything I needed.  I did spend some time talking with RC about Trax's tongue and the show. What I found out is that if I want to enter I have to use some sort of shanked bit.  My Mylar does count as one so that is what we will have to use.  We talked about the classes I want to enter, and she agreed with my choices, plus told me to throw in the western pleasure class. She says, "you won't win it, but it will be good training before you get to the classes where you really want to compete."  The only thing that concerns me about that is how he will react to the on, then off, then on again aspect of it.  But there is only one way to find out I guess.

Then she said to enter the adult and the open trail class. She says again, use your first one to get him used to the course and then in the second one you go in and beat the pants off of everyone!   Then she also told me that if I want to get a real good idea of what to expect (as I have never even seen a live horse show before) to go to the AQHA show the second week of May.  I think that is great idea.  I told her I was still undecided on the halter class. She said do it, It is a flat fee for club members to enter as many classes as we want, and he is nice looking horse. Just wash him up, and take him in.

As we were talking, another girl I met at the clinic I went to last year (she has a cool horse named Czar who jumps) joined in and was telling us a hilarious story about her and her former boss. Then I needed to get going so I said, "Well I'd better run, I've got to go and build a bridge today." The other gal comes back with, "Oh, so you can get over it?"  (badumpbom)   I laughed all the way to the parking lot!

So we got the bridge built, I threw it and some more poles in the back of my truck and went out and set up the rest of my course.  Then I came back and got the horse and trailer.  By time I got him trailered the wind started picking up. By time I got to the arena, it was blowing. Grrrr! But I rode anyway.

Now, there is something I wanted to elaborate on yesterday but boys were harassing me, so I didn't get too.  The reason that just letting Trax run and run was the wrong thing to do is because he is like a long distance marathon runner. If you run you know what I mean, if you don't I will explain it to you. Runners reach a point where they get "in the zone". (hence the term "runners high")  They are able to tune everything else out and just focus inward on their breathing, their heartbeat, and their feet moving. Nothing else exists.   I could actually feel it yesterday when Trax went into his zone, and at that point I knew he had forgotten I was even there. It is like the faster he goes the more he relaxes.  If I had let him, he would have stayed there for hours.  He loves it there in the zone, it is his happy place. So although I think that letting him do that can be a good thing at times, it is not the right way to warm him up. Actually what I think is that maybe it is the right way to warm him up, the day before.  (*disclaimer- I personally have never experienced a runners high, I avoid running at all costs.  But my ex was a runner so that is how I know about it)

I am going to test my theory next week.  I will take him one day and just let him run to his hearts content and not make him do anything else. Then the next day we will go back and train.  The reason I think that this might be good for him was because of how he good he was on Sunday.

We started our usual ground work, only this time I really focused on our downward transitions.  I was very clear in my verbal cues of "easy" and then would give just a slight tug on the lead line.  I was very clear in my upward cues as well. A smooch means step it up, and we played with slow trots, faster trots, slow canters and faster lopes.  We did this a lot in both directions and I could see the wheels turning in his head as he was figuring it out.  I'm here to tell ya, the boy is smart, and he wants to get it right.

Then I stepped up on him and we went right into the exact same thing. I wanted to do it while it was still fresh in his mind, so he could make the connection. It felt like he did too. We spent a good hour just on transitions and reiterating what the cues mean.  Yes his downward transitions still need some work, but they were so much better than the day before. I kind of feel like because he had the day before to move as fast as he wanted, this time he wasn't near as interested in doing so. He was perfectly happy to listen to me, and attempt to understand my cues.  It could just be that since we started out with "you will pay attention to me", it stayed that way, but he really did seem more ok with being tuned into me. I guess more will be revealed in that respect.  I spent most of my time practicing riding one handed, which is easy at everything except for the fast lope.  I actually have to hook my thumb in my belt loop to keep my arm from flying all over the place.  I experimented with his extended trot, and have decided that posting doesn't work for me, I can sit his extended trot pretty easily as long as I move my hips from side to side a little.  Its funny because as I am riding I can hear Marks voice telling me to stop leaning into my circles, or to get my leg off of him because he is leaning on me.

One of the things I worked on was when I say "easy" to get him to slow down, of course I also drop my seat, but he still requires a little bit of help from the rein, so in order to keep from just pulling straight back, which just throws his head straight up in the air, I worked on just using my fingers of the one hand to bump bump bump from one side to the other. This gets him to drop his head (a little) and tells him with as little contact as possible that I'm asking for a little less speed. It seemed to work pretty well. My arm stays in place, but my hand pivots just a little and my fingers do the work.  I would like him to respond a little quicker than what he is, but it is better than before and so I am happy with the progress we made.

Oh, the other thing he is doing is picking up the correct leads on his own. That is new too. Before it was always a left lead. Now it is the correct lead if we are circling.  I still have some work to do on getting him to give me the lead I ask for in a straight line. I think the problem is more me than him.

Next came the trail work. for some reason his side passes to the right have fallen apart. That is why he will not do the rope gate from the right side. So we spent some time back on the fence side passing over.  Then we went to the poles and he didn't want to side pass to the right over them either. So we moved to the middle and tried again. He did better.  Then we just side passed to the right in the middle of the arena.  After that we tried the gate again, still a no go. I finally asked him to just stand next to it on the right, and he did that, so we left it at that. We did do the gate several times from the left, he likes it from the left. He is an odd horse!    The very last time we did it I parked him next to it, and rested. I picked up the rope, and he says, "Oh wait Lady, I can show you!"  and proceeded to almost complete the exercise on his own. He backed up, stepped through, turned his hip all on his own.  He forgot the last step but just the slightest little reminder and he finished it off.  He loves to get it right!   I know I should make him wait, but I figured what the heck, nothing wrong with letting him show off once in a while.

He did great on the box,  but I need to work on trotting over poles.  He clips them every time.  It might be that I don't have them spaced right, so I will need to talk to Mark about that.  We did some slow spins. I don't care if he can do it fast, but I like that he is getting to where his hind stays in place.  He is better to one side than the other, and he doesn't always cross with the correct leg, but again, some serious progress.

It is crazy how he is learning to recognize the obstacles and remembers what to do.  He sees the cones and automatically picks up his pace to trot through them. Very little guidance is needed from me. He snorted at our new bridge once and then went right over it.  After that it was nothing. We also pulled the log which I have got to cut down a little. TC made it way to big and heavy. Not for him but for me.  He still gets a little bothered at this task, but he is getting much better. I think it is just a matter of practice practice practice.

We ended on a positive (although I can't recall what it was now, he had so many) and I gave him some much deserved grazing time. It offered me a great time to rest as well, and of course take some pictures.

"Heaven, I'm in heaven"
Trax, I didn't know you could sing!

"Did you hear that?"
Hear what?

"Yup definitely heard something!"
I heard it too.

"It's coming from over there, they are some sort of flying horse eating monsters"
Trax, those are geese."Oh...do geese eat horses?"

When I took this one I did not realize I was copying
Karen C's Header shot.
(Sorry about that Karen)

"Lady? Did you fall down?"
Nope, just resting down here enjoying how handsome you are.

"Aw shucks"

"Are you going to eat that?"
Um, don't you have grass to graze on?

"If I give you my starving pony face will you share?"
I'm pretty sure you don't like trail mix

Does anyone else think that he looks just a little on the thin side?   It is hard for me to tell because he is usually a tad chunky.  The vet rated him at a 5 on the weight scale.
 But then he said Killian was also a 5 and he isn't.

Okay, blogger is not letting me type where I want to any more, }:-(

The last thing I want to say is that with each lesson Mark asks me what I want to work on and I never really know. But now I do. The trail stuff I have down as far as what to do and how to teach him. What I really need help with is my reining patterns and even more important...
STOPPING!
It occurred to me yesterday that we haven't taught him how to stop yet.  I still have to slow him way down to get him to stop.  I don't expect sliding stops, but he needs to at least stop.  So now I know where Mark and I really need to focus.  It is good to have a plan I guess.

A calm in the storm allows for riding

Weather man has predicted rain and snow for about ten full days.  I fully expected for icy road conditions last night, which would have put the kibosh on my lesson. I will not haul a horse across town on ice without a really good reason.

Luckily the rain and snow stopped for most of the afternoon and the roads were pretty much dry and  clear when I got off work, so I raced home and loaded up.

Trax was a muddy mess, but happy to see me.  My horse has changed so much in the last 2 months.  He has gone from being a standoffish loner, to being a much more affectionate man.  He still moves away from me in the pasture (unless I have food) and then follows as soon as I am not looking, but the change is when he is in his pen or on a halter.  He has always been one to keep a safe distance between us.  I could enter his space but he never ever asked to enter mine. He never asked for physical attention.  The last two times I have had my hands on him, he actually put his head on me.  Not in a pushy rude way, but in more of a "touch me please" way.

I know all about the "bubble" and "I can touch you, but you can't touch me" but for a horse like Trax, I think this is a rule that needs to be broken...to a certain extent.  For example when we are hand walking he knows to keep a few feet back. He watches me, and if I stop, so does he. If I speed up, so does he. He pretty much "heels" better than my dogs. If I back up, so does he.  He is not allowed to put his butt on me, push me with his nose, or swing his head into my face.  He is the most respectful of any of my horses, we have good boundaries. I think this is mostly because he does not care to be that close to anyone. He has trust issues. So for him to seek out physical contact from me...that is a big step for him.

When I was brushing his neck, he turned his head and laid it on my arm. When I was tying him in the trailer, he did it again. Both times I rewarded him with some head scratching and a hug. He in turn, rewarded me with a heavy sigh of contentment.

Okay, so back to the lesson.

I have been given permission to use MK's real name now. It is Mark Keil. He says he is happy to have the on line exposure.  (I now have some video of him riding Trax which I will upload this weekend). Anyway, Mark was working with a colt when I got there, and another gal was just finishing up her ride. I really like watching him work with these colts. He has a nice easy way about himself, and it is just cool to watch.

While he was doing that I got started on my ground work with Trax, focusing mostly on his transitions up and down.   I lunged him a little longer and a little harder than usual, but I had a mission behind doing so.  Through our lessons I am learning to see and feel when Trax is just running away and when he is actually cantering with thought.  His natural tendency is to run and it takes him a while to connect his brain to his feet. So my goal was to get him to both trot and canter but be relaxed while doing it.  It took a little bit, but he finally got the idea and was maintaining his canter without me having to really drive him, then I was able to bring him down to his trot. The next step was getting him to walk, which takes quite a bit longer.  But I wouldn't give in until he actually made the transition down. I have been known to just disengage his hind end at a slow trot, instead of seeing it all the way through. I have find that if I take the time to get that transition, my ride tends to go a little better.

We started off by dragging a log while still on the ground.  He did very well and we even let the rope go behind him. I expected more of a reaction from him.  He was more reactive with the rope on his left than on his right. I'm guessing that is his roping training coming out, but with our help he pushed through it, and we were both very proud.

When I mounted up we started with just a little flexing. Then he had me go ahead and ride him out in a circle on a loose rein. We started at a walk and he maintained his walk very nicely instead of just trying to take off at a trot right off the bat.  We were going to the left, and when I asked for the lateral/vertical combo flex he gave it to me quite nicely.

Next, Mark had me go ahead and ask for a trot. He instructed me to only use my legs, no spur.  I squeezed but didn't get much of a response, so I added a cluck. which helped. Again our trot was good, I was able to give him just a slight amount of contact to maintain our speed. Again the flex was there and was soft and easy for me. Each time he gave it to me, I gave him his release with a little less contact. The we asked for the canter. I was so happy with how he felt. It was soft, he wasn't fighting me, Mark said that Trax actually looked happy.  Mark had me give him more rein and let him get up a little more speed on the "straight away" of one side, and then on the other side ask for a little less speed with my seat and legs and a command of "Easy".  It worked!  He dropped down nicely and I could feel the change in him. We did this several times. It was soo nice.  Like about as perfect as I have ever felt him.  He would give me his face when I asked even at the canter, which was even better!

Then we did some canter, trot, canter, trot transitions.  Then trot to walk to trot to walk. All of them quite nice.  After that we let him rest while we chatted about the videos I had watched on the weekend. He also asked me if my rides are better inside or outside. I told him that I do not think that inside or outside is the determining factor. The amount of prep time is what makes the difference.

After that, we switched to the right side. He started off nice but very quickly wanted to kick up to that trot so I brought him back down. When I did ask for the trot he was smooth but wouldn't give me his face very well. I got it a few times, but not easily like I did on the left.  It was a little frustrating. When we went to the canter he kicked off on the right lead which was cool, but was more like the run away freight train of his past. Those nice downward transitions were non existent and he was never really relaxed.

Now something I noticed as I was riding this right lead canter is that it feels really awkward and a little rough to me. Which is the exact opposite of his left which is always smooth and easy to ride.  The question I have here is this: Is it me, or is it him?  I mean, am I just so used to riding his left lead, that it is just what feels normal to me, or does he have something physical going on that makes him a little awkward and rough on that lead.  When I say physical I mean perhaps out of place in his spine or shoulder or something.  One thing Mark noticed is that when on the right lead I tend to lean to one side in the saddle. When he caught that and had me square up my shoulders to Trax's it was a little better. So perhaps the problem really is me. (note to self- get busy finding an equine chiro just in case.)

Anyway, somewhere around this time everything fell apart and I had to bring my circle in small because Trax was really running away with me. At one point we were unintentionally circling a barrel and I swear I heard him say ,"Ooh barrels! Lets race!" and then proceeded to show me what an amazing barrel horse he is.    I had to move him away from the barrel then he finally slowed down.  I rode him to Mark and said, "Your turn. Oh and do you mind if I video some of this?" He said no problem so I grabbed my camera.

He never cantered him, just worked on his flex both to the right and the left. He explained that I am still forgetting to left my leg off and Trax has taken to leaning on me to the right. This in turn is letting him drop his shoulder instead of giving me the flex I am asking for.  I watched him bump bump bump with his legs which seemed to get more forward out of him. I'm glad I have the videos because now I can study them and really watch one thing at a time to really get a better idea of what I need to do.

Here are a few pics I took though.

I had to put some of these in black in white because I had the "Sunset" setting on them which made them look really red.

Nice flex to the right while moving forward 

 Looking softer than he ever has

Sorry a little blurry- which is when I realized my setting was off. 

That is one handome bum...the horse not the guy! 

Did you seriously just post a picture of my butt??

Lady Please!  I'm all sweaty! What will Zoe think?

Me and My Guy
 (I promise my smile was not near as forced as it appears to be)

Afterwards I walked him around while Mark got another colt. I wish I had taken a picture of this one. He looks exactly like a younger version of Danny. Same color exactly, with a white star and one white sock. He also has that same big old long nose that slight resembles a mule.  He is much smaller than Danny but then he is only 3. Maybe next time I will get a picture. Once again I found myself watching in awe at the work he was doing. Good stuff folks, really good stuff.

All in all it was a good lesson. We didn't work on a lot of different things, but focused on my riding and the much needed transitions.  I'm cannot say enough good things about Mark and the work he has done with an old lady who doesn't ride very well and her run away freight train of a horse.