Too Smart For His Own Good

5 o'clock finally showed up about 12 hours later.  Okay well it seemed that way, and I raced home changed and ran out to grab my horse.  As I was loading him in the trailer I got a call from a guy who was coming into town to buy hay cubes...DRAT!!

Luckily I was able to pawn that chore off on TC, and I just kept on rolling.  For some reason it took me forever to get my trailer backed into my parking spot.  Probably because McDiesel (the owner of the property) was there was teasing me about my trailer parking abilities.  I don't function well under pressure!  Well critical guy pressure anyways!

Then we got to work.

I did things differently this time. Once I got on him we went straight to obstacles without actually "warming" up.  My goal was to get his mind working before his feet, and see where we went from there.   We did the rope gate and the cones, of course the bridge (which he tried to cheat on- so we did it twice) and then I had taken my box and made it into the L-pattern for backing through a corner.  Smart move on my part too, because we struggled with it the first couple of times.

We did it from one end first which had him bending to the right to get through it and he had it down after a couple of tries without a single fault. But then I decided to try it from the other end which had him bending to the left.  He kept wanting to back towards the right which had him stepping on the poles. I would move his him and get him lined out and then he would do it again.  Then as we made our corner he didn't want to move his shoulder right. We did it over and over again. Finally I decided to give him a break.  I find that with Trax, drilling and drilling into him can frustrate him, and he felt a little frustrated.

We did the log pull, which I am glad I decided to do. We hadn't really messed with it in a while and at first he was a little bothered. Not bad but more than he needed to be so we dragged that log to Texas and back.  I even made him drag it backwards. I could tell his roping memories were kicking in because although he wanted to keep the rope taught he did not think it was right to drag it.  I could tell he was confused a little so we took it nice and slow.  Once he understood he did fine.

We did the rope gate from the right.  The best way I can describe it was "textbook".  The only thing he doesn't like is if I make him do it slowly. He likes to show that he knows how to do it and gets impatient if I make him settle too long.  But I explained to him that if we do it slow then we can do it absolutely perfect and I know how much of a perfectionist he is. So then he agreed and we did it slow and perfect.  We also did it to the left, and again he did great.

One of the things we worked on a lot was backing up with me only using one hand. I have always used two hands and sort of bumped/seesawed the reins to get him to really drive back and drop his head.  But in the classes I can only one hand.  This results in a head held high very stiff reverse and I don't care for it.  So to work on that I would ask one handed and just keep asking until he dropped his head, and then I would release and praise him.  By the end of the night he was dropping his head 98% of the time.  He might would start off with head up high, but dropped it almost immediately and once he drops his head, he flies back.

Then we went back to the L and tried it again from the tough side.  He did better but still faulted, so we did it one more time. This time he did it perfect so we left it alone.

Time to move on to "reining".  My goal was to really make sure that my cues were clear in his mind. So we did a lot of transitions.  The posting for a faster trot is totally the way to go for him. I don't have to use any leg, or even a cluck or a smooch. I just start posting and he picks up the pace. It is smooth like butter.  As soon as I sit down solid and say "easy" he drops it back down to that sit-able trot that I love love love. We also did a lot of softening at the jaw.  He is doing very well on that.

We moved on to cantering, which at first was a little chargey but I just made my circles smaller, asked him to rate and relax and pretty soon he did. So I just let him go to his zone for a bit, making sure our leads were correct and we just cruised.  After a bit he was feeling pretty good so I decided to try a pattern.

My pattern choice this time was much more difficult. There were more tasks involved and it took several times of stopping and starting over for me to memorize it.  Once I had it down then we really went to work.  If he failed the task I would go back and make him do it over, and we would go from there. If he took off in the wrong lead I would circle around and we would start again from where ever he messed up at.

I figured out that if his hip was starting to fall out on his spins I could actually just move my foot back and sort of side pass him out of it. I don't know if that makes sense, but it seems to help.  I had to laugh at him because he is starting to try and spin faster. The problem with that is that if I let him, and it is more than just one spin, he ends up falling out completely. So I have to keep him slowed down.

He reminds me of a little kid, "Hey Mom, look what I can do!" (and then proceeds to almost do a cartwheel)

There was one section where we go from a canter to an extended trot over poles. I really blew it for him there by trying to slow him down to the trot and speed him up to the extended trot with my posting all at the same time. He totally fell apart and had no idea what I was asking.  So once I figured out what the problem was I just slowed him down and rode it through without posting. It wasn't comfortable but at least the pace was correct.

We struggled with the lead change from right to left, which surprised me, but he was trying so hard to give me the right leads (and the pattern called for more of those) that when I asked for the left the first time, it threw him.  Eventually he understood though and so on our final attempt we did pretty darn good.  We completed the entire pattern with no major mistakes.  I say major, because with him a reining pattern is never   perfect.  He sure does try hard though.  It was funny too, because we would do the last task, I would rest him a minute and pet him, and then kick him forward. He would head over to our starting point, line himself out and wait for me to say, "Walk".

After our last run I took him over to the L one more time. He did it perfect so we called it a day. I dropped the reins and told him to walk and just let him meander over to the gate. I expected him to stop but he didn't.  He kept walking and just sort of meandered around the arena. Over by the paint horses, around the bridge, past the gate, and then he went to the L.

I swear I am not making this up....He went to the L and walked through it.  Not across it, but through it.  I was waiting to see if he was going to stop at the end of it and back up through it, but he didn't, he just kept walking. But I couldn't stop laughing at him. He is such a silly boy.  A little too smart for his own good.

Finally we were back at the gate and I told him whoa and he finally stopped.  He was rewarded with a good roll in the dirt and a chance to graze on the thick yummy grass.

I was rewarded by a nice chaff mark inside my right knee.  :(

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.

Trax Speaks Out Against Rope Abuse

I was saying good by to all my new lady and pony friends in this picture.. 

Hello nice ladies, Trax here to tell you about the "clin-ick" and a little message on why you must always be careful with ropes.

First of all, it was really chilly and my lady keeps brushing out all of my winter hairs which keep me warm. When it is chilly I like to move around to stay warm.  The day before she even sprayed some icky smelly stuff on me.  It is supposed to make me clean, but it just makes me itch, so I go and roll in the nice clean dirt every time she sprays me.   So because it was chilly I kept trying to move around. She got a little mad at me and kept telling me to "be still".

When we were in the big barn place, there were birds flying all over and the kept dropping sticks and things on my head. I did not like that either. So I felt like if I kept moving they would be less likely to actually hit me with said sticks.

There were lots of nice ladies with their ponies there and we were all there to learn about ob-sta-cals.  I am not sure why we need to learn these things, but my lady says we do so I tried really hard.

This was the first "ob-sta-cal"  they call it a rope gate.  Now I do not mind gates, but this is not a gate.  Gates are made to keep horses in and cows out.  Now I ask you ladies, have you ever seen a cow that wouldn't just bulldoze its way right through this?  Even if it was biting rope, it would not stop a cow. So this is not a gate.

I do not like ropes. I cannot tell you why I do not like ropes. I don't like to talk about it, but it was very traumatic.  Ropes get tangled in my feets and hurt, ropes can burn my skin and take all my hair off, and if a human hits me with a rope it hurts really bad.   I do not like ropes.  My lady touches me with ropes sometimes, and she has never hurt me with one, but they still scare me very much.  But usually if she comes to me with a rope I try to stand very still for her, even though it makes me tremble.  If you are reading this then you probably have a horse, and if you have a horse don't ever hurt him or her with a rope. Ropes can be very bad so always always be careful with your ropes.

On this day she wanted me to stand next to the "rope gate".  I saw the other nice ladies asking their horses to do the same thing, but still I did not want to.  My lady was very nervous, I could feel it. This made me nervous too, because she must have thought the rope was going to hurt us too. But she asked me to stand next to it. Finally she relaxed and did a big sigh.  When she sighed so did I, because that meant it was going to be ok.  Some horses even let their ladies grab the rope and then the horses went through the poles and then their ladies put the rope back. It was CRAZY!  I don't know why they weren't scared of the ropes.  I wish I wasn't so scared. Maybe someday I won't be.

Do you see the black thing with the rope on it?  There was one lady who was telling the other ladies what to do and she tried to attack me with that rope.  I was so so scared I tried to run away. So my Lady jumped down and took the rope away from her.  But then she rubbed me all over with it.  Pretty soon it was ok, but the next time she went near it I was still kind of scared.  I do not like ropes!

I did do some things really good that day. I will show you.

Do you see the box on the ground?  I went into the box and pee'd!  I thought that was what it was for, but I was wrong. All the nice ladies laughed and laughed though so I giggled a little inside too.  Then My mom tapped my shoulder with her toe and I did my circle trick that I have been learning. I went all the way around and all the ladies cheered and cheered!  I was very proud, and my lady said I was a good good boy. It wasn't that hard, but I like being a good boy.

Now, do you see the 2 long poles on the ground?  Well my lady asked me to stand next to those on the end. I didn't like it though, so I kept trying to move away. I don't know why I didn't like it, I just didn't.  So then she asked me to step over them, and I could do that. Then she asked me to move sideways without touching the poles.  I can move sideways really good. It is my favorite new trick so I did it real good.

Then each horse and nice lady too a turn doing all the "ob-sta-cals" one right after the other.  When it was my turn I stood next to the evil ropes but I watched them out of the corner of my eye, just in case they tried anything funny.  Then we went around some cones and over a bridge. The bridge is narrow and I went to fast so I fell off.  My lady made me do it again.  Then we went to the pole with the flappy things. (chinks- had to be picked up placed across shoulders and put back again)  I did this before so I didn't want to do it again. But my lady said I had to so I did.  Then we went to the box again and once again did my new circle trick and everyone cheered. If I knew how to grin I would have.  Then we had to dash to the round thing on a rope. I'm good at going fast!  I stood next to the rope but when it tried to jump out at I me I moved away. My lady says it didn't jump but I think it did.  Then we went to the poles again. At first I thought my lady wanted me stop before them, because she kept looking down at them. but then she looked past them and I knew what she wanted. So I stepped over them and stopped.  Then I saw it! My big chance to show all the nice ladies and other ponies just how good I really am. I knew she was going to ask me to go sideways so I did it, ALL ON MY OWN!  I was so proud and my lady laughed and laughed and told me I was sooo special!  Then she tapped my side so I moved my butt over and we did the back up trick right out the back of the poles. Every one cheered and cheered and I danced around. My lady jumped off and gave me a big big hug.

I love hugs!

Then she loosed the thing on my belly and I took a big breath cuz I knew that meant we were done and I had done good good good!

I love being a good pony! I get yummy treats and big hugs and then I get to go home and roll in the clean dirt.  I didn't like it when she got me wet with the cold water, but she used something to get as much water off as she could and then let me roll in the dirt 3 times!  I like rolling in the dirt almost as much as I like treats.

So good by for now nice ladies. Don't forget to hug your ponies today, give them lots of treats, and always always always be careful with your ropes!