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.