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.