El Rancho Garza

Concepcion Trail Ride Part 2...

2011-10-14T09:09:00.001-07:00

Joey and me...Here I'm texting and riding a horse.

I'm not trying to be coy with the reader by breaking up this post in two parts. It's been busy at work, and haven't had time to finish this story!

When last I left you, I was preparing to ride Joey, my 4 year old grullo gelding, in a 13 mile trail ride with a LOT of other horses. How did he handle it all?

He was a champ. He loaded well, with only slight encouragement needed. He was understandably anxious during tack up, but so was every other horse. Even my trusty mount Woody was lifting his head in excitement. There were all manner of new horses around, calling to every horse, and the vibe was strong with nervous energy.

I mounted, and I could feel his energy. I spent time flexing him from the saddle, and making him yield hindquarters often and vigorously. I could feel him connect up. We also did a little longeing. It helped him to go ahead and release the energy he was carrying.

I felt good. But the hardest part of this trail ride is the start. Horses buck, sidepass, crow hop, kick, bite, and do all kinds of general nastiness until they get some miles under their feet. The riders are all bunched up, and the spacing is terrible. Herd mates get lost in the shuffle, inciting panic in the little herds that have just joined to become a large herd of chaos.
You could tell Joey was not immune to the excitement, but he stayed steady under saddle, and we had no ill events.

The rest of the ride was a dream. Once we had some spacing, I was able to walk, trot, and do some nice sidepassing on the trail at a trot. I received THREE compliments on his looks! He never acted up. My only complaint is that his short stride made it hard to keep up with the longer striding horses at the walk. But we just did walk/trot to keep up.

He was a fabulous water drinker at the halfway point, guzzling up gallons of water. He has always been a good water drinker, and I felt like a proud Papa watching my boy drink water eagerly, while other riders were reduced to saying"Well, you can lead 'em to water, but you can't make 'em drink".

He maintained good effort in the last part of the ride, but you could tell he wasn't as fresh as he was at the beginning. He stumbled some, and I know it was because he was dragging his feet. But his good attitude prevailed.

It was a hell of a first trail ride for this young horse. I'm VERY proud of him. I've ridden him some since our return, and he has been steady, and he and I are connecting on every level. I can't wait for more adventures.

Getting down to stretch my legs.

Talk about a challenge! Look at all the riders!

Concepcion Trail Ride Part 1...

2011-10-11T09:34:00.000-07:00

Well, it was that time of year again...The time of year where I saddle up and travel to Concepcion, TX for the Fiesta Del Rancho and its accompanying trail ride. But as in the past, there is always important prep work to complete.

I had to lay off the horses for a few weeks due to a busy work schedule. That left Joey un-ridden for 3 weeks. I had started back to ground work, but there's just no substitute for saddle time.

I had a group of riders over, about 14 total, on a Sunday, a week before the Concepcion Trail Ride. I jumped on Joey cold back. We walked around some of the arriving horses and riders, and then suddenly, after being on him about 10 minutes and while doing nothing more than walking, he went into a bucking fit. He threw about 10 bucks in a row. I rode him through it, and then worked yielding his hindquarters and getting his focus back on me. I had kind of anticipated this was coming, because he was unfocused from the second I pulled him from his stall. I attribute it to nervous energy. And while we survived the trail ride that day, it was clear we were not in sync.

I used the rest of the week to ride him. For the first few rides after the bucking fit, he would throw some bucks in the round pen or while longeing. Gradually, by the 3rd or 4th ride of the week, all the buck seemed to have left him, and he was buck free.

I had a thought that I had been leaning on the bit while asking him to canter, out of my own fear that he would buck. I took to riding him in a bosal to break me of the habit, and I tried to "grow a pair" and just accept what happened. I also committed to a quirt, since he tends to be a little lazy. Well, the results were great. Without me in his mouth, and with a little encouragement from the quirt, we had some good buck free rides and some good sustained canters in the round pen. Truth is, he rode as well or better with the bosal as with the bit.

Now I was ready for the Concepcion Trail Ride. This is a ride with plenty of challenges. There is the haul over there, and yes, I did have a trailer tire blowout on the way down that resulted in a 25 minute tire change. Not my best time, but the tire wrapped around the axle and I had to work it free. It also means an overnight stay in a new environment for the horses. And it's a trail ride with about a hundred other horses. Throw in some VERY loud music being blasted from following cars and wagons in the procession and you get the set up. It is a problem rich environment. And I'm doing this on a 4 year old horse that earlier in the week, decided to try out for the rodeo as a bucking bronc.....

A Rough Ride on Joey

2011-08-24T20:12:00.000-07:00

This post will be staccato style, forget the grammar...

Hustled to get a ride in on Joey tonight. Headed to my friend's place to ride in her good arena.

No problems trailer loading. Joey was very distracted though. Looking at other horses, ears everywhere but on me. Walk and trot no problem, but he was not "connected". I dismounted and longed for respect, but I could tell I still didn't have him all the way.

He was cantering well, but on his favorite lead, the left. I wanted to get his head in a good place, and so we cantered a bunch going left, but rather non-aggressively. Then I tried the right. He was reluctant to take the right lead again. I worked on half passes and side passes at the walk and trot. I wanted him really yielding, because then it's easier to start him in the correct lead. I watched a Craig Cameron episode on this very topic on Monday, and he really promoted this. He also reminded me that we should always tell our horse which lead we want when going into the canter. In other words, don't just canter off without a plan for which lead to be in.

I finally got him in a right lead, and we cantered. I goosed him a little bit to keep him from slowing to the trot, and he bucked. It was no small buck. If he had followed the first with a second and third, I'd have been off his back, because I was out of position after the first buck. I slowed him down with a one rein stop and IMMEDIATELY yielded his hindquarters in both directions, HARD and FAST. Then I cantered him off again. A few more laps, and he pulled another one, but this time I was ready and had a decent grasp of my night latch. It seems my leg asking him to keep up speed was the trigger, and going to the right was harder for him to do than the left.

OK all the bleeding hearts out there. I can hear it already. "Maybe he's hurt and you need to stop riding him so hard". Baloney. Look, I asked my vet how I should handle possible lameness issues. He said that mild degrees of lameness are hard to diagnose. He suggested I keep riding until the limb, part of limb, whatever is hurting, becomes more obvious and persists, and THEN bring him in.

I know Joey has an issue with taking the right lead. I also know I've been working on strengthening it. Today, thus far in this ride, he's been distracted and disconnected. I did NOT round pen him prior to riding, and I am definitely making him work. Unless he shows me some obvious lameness, I'm riding him through this.

I kept cantering him to left and right, with a good grasp of the night latch. I let my leg move him around while cantering, and while I could tell he didn't like it, I didn't care. He needs to be turning and yielding to my leg if I have any hope of good steering while at the canter. You have to control the hind end and the ribcage to have any hope of good circles. Without it, the horse will just push through your head direction and you'll be cantering without control. I did NOT have spurs on, and I was barely touching him, He was being over reactive and needed desensitization.

He quit bucking. I then made him yield front and rear, and when he was slow about it, I used my rein end to pop him where I was already applying pressure with my leg anyway. I got a VERY good response after that. He softened, and I could tell I had his full attention after that.

Look, I don't want a rodeo anymore than anyone else. But I'm not going to reward this behavior that I feel represents willful disobedience. He did much better after an attitude adjustment. Joey is a young horse. I feel he was looking around at the other horses for a herd and leadership. I didn't come down on him hard initially, but eventually, that's what it took. I knew the risks when I took on a youngster.

Like the Aaron Ralston show sings at the beginning of every show..Did you come to ride or did you come to hide?

I came to ride. I can't wait for the next ride, because I'm thinking what this horse needs now is some good hard riding for some extended canter sessions. And I plan on delivering.

Random Thoughts About the Canter

2011-08-23T07:28:00.000-07:00

I'd like to preface this writing by reminding everyone that I am no horse expert. BUT, I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night, so...

I am now going to espouse my opinions, based on observation. Specifically, I want to address the issue of a horse's cantering, or rather their willingness or reluctance to do so.

Have you ever considered this test? What would your horse do if you caught him from the pasture or stall, picked his hooves and tacked him up, mounted him, and then proceeded to canter the horse away from the barn? This is without any warm up, absolutely "cold back" riding.

Now I'm sure some of you are starting to shudder at the mere thought of trying this test with your horse. And I'm not suggesting you try it. But I'd be interested to hear your response. And I'll tell you what each of my horses would do below.

My 17 year old gelding, Woody, would canter off easily. He might get high-headed for a bit, but there would be no tail swishing, no cow kicks, and no bucking. I consider this the gold standard. This horse is truly good and broke. He side passes both directions, trailer loads and unloads without difficulty, leads well and will trot while led, yields his hindquarters, will cross over his front legs, stops with my seat, rides collected, neck reins, and rides best in a curb bit. He picks up his feet for picking like no horse I've ever seen. His only fault is that he can get high-headed until reminded to flex at the poll, and he has no cow in him. But by every measure, he is a completely broke horse. He has NEVER in the time I have owned him, bucked, cow kicked, or reared when asked to do anything. Enough said.

Now for the another end of the spectrum, my newly acquired, 4 year old gelding Joey. He is a good horse. But if I were to canter him off cold backed, and I hadn't worked him in several days, I would be grabbing for my night latch just in case he might buck. He's not a bad horse, but he isn't completely broke. He might buck, he might not. But I don't have the confidence in him that I do in Woody. Joey is only fair (but getting better) at trailer loading. But I can't say that I've successfully loaded him in every kind of trailer. He picks up his feet well, without any tail swishing. He side passes well. But he still has trouble with lead departures and he tends to lift his head when changing gaits. In other words, he has great potential, but he still has a lot to learn, and therefore I don't consider him completely broke.

My other two horses are in the middle of the spectrum, but closer to truly broke.

My point is that too often I hear people making excuses for why their horse cow kicks going into the canter. Or a horse that bucks when asked to canter. Or is reluctant to canter. I'll bet you good money that those same horses don't do a LOT of things well. It would be a rare horse that can do everything that my horse Woody can do AND still cow kicks or bucks going into the canter. To me, showing tail swishing, cow kicking, bucking going into the canter, are all just signs of willful disobedience (assuming always that health issues have been eliminated).

Now don't get me wrong; it's not that I think the horse that shows reluctance to canter is a "bad" horse. In the case of my horse Joey, he's just young. He sometimes goes too long between riding, and he has to have the "fresh" worked off him before he performs at his best and gets "right in his head" and submits to my leadership. But I do NOT imagine for one second that he isn't a potentially dangerous horse, or that he is safe as my bed at home and a truly broke horse. He is NOT.

And just because a horse is older does NOT mean they are truly broke. Older horses can be as dangerous as young ones. But I DO think even the best of young horses cannot be considered truly broke until they have some age and miles on them. It's just that they don't have enough experience. A 4 year old that shows great temperament MIGHT be a future Woody, but I can't say that at 4 years of age. Too much can still go wrong, there are too many new experiences that might overwhelm a younger horse.

So if your horse can't do all the things that Woody can do, if you can't jump on your horse cold back and canter away from the barn, then stop fooling yourself that you have a dead broke, safe as your bed at home horse. What you have is a horse that is still dangerous, and needs your work and attention.

So what are you going to do to make your horse super broke? Do you even care if your horse does the occasional cow kick or buck going into the canter? Have you given up on cantering because you fear what will come next? Have you become satisfied with walking and trotting only?

Like I warned at the beginning of this post, I am not a horse expert. But I am stating firmly, in my opinion, unless your horse canters without any expression of reluctance, you have work to do with your horse.

Better Adventures With a 4 Year Old

2011-08-21T10:11:00.000-07:00

What a difference a day makes.

I read up a little on how to train a horse to pony, now that I realized that a horse does indeed have to be trained to pony, and it's not some inborn skill.

This is the article that came up on a google search.

I encourage you to read it and then come back to this post...

Are you back? Did you find it as intimidating as I did? I mean, I'm supposed to handle my horse, handle my split reins, handle a lead line, and control another horse with a stick in my hand. How many hands does this guy think humans have anyway? And should I be whistling Waltzing Matilda at the same time? That Aussie is nuts!

I trailered Woody and Joey over to my friend's place this morning. I gathered all the tools described in the article, and made ready in the arena. First, I longed Joey to get him listening and focused. Check.

Then I tried to just walk Joey in the manner Clinton Anderson described. I did NOT like the lead line across Woody's chest. I imagined that if Joey balked, there would be a rope burn across Woody's chest and a sizeable vet bill. I was not going to do that. I wanted to be able to get out of trouble immediately if needed. No sense in turning this training session into a wreck.

Well, I got it figured out after a bit. Left hand held the reins and the lead line. Right hand held the training stick, the nice long variety. Woody is an experienced horse that neck reins well. I positioned Joey's head at my right foot while mounted. We started walking. I could then reach back and tap Joey on the hind end if he showed any signs of slowing or balking. IT WORKS!

In fact, Joey even got going too fast and I had to check him with the lead line to keep his head where I wanted it. But getting him to trot and walk lively was no longer an issue.

In retrospect, I wish I had started out this way, because it might be a problem that Joey learned a couple of times that he could get away from me. He still has a tendency to back up when pressured, and that's something that a more experienced horse will not do. If I had started this training correctly, he would never have experienced that release for the wrong action. But overall, I was very pleased with our progress.

I also trotted him from the ground with me jogging ahead, and he was moving more freely. He still wants to act like he doesn't want to move with me, however. But a few taps with the training stick and some longeing to free up his "stuck feet", corrected that quickly.

Both horses got a well-deserved hosing down and some extra alfalfa for their efforts. It proved to be a big step in the right direction. I think I just caught myself whistling a few bars of "Waltzing Matilda".

Adventures With a 4 Year Old

2011-08-20T20:05:00.000-07:00

I had the brilliant idea of exercising two horses today. Why not use Woody to pony Joey? What could go wrong? Horses naturally pony, don't they?

Wrong. Bad idea. So I get another adventure out of it.

I trailer to a friend's place, with a nice arena. I had the place to myself. Which also meant if I got hurt, no one would be there to call EMS. Alex's injury was fresh on my mind.

I used Woody, my steady Eddie. I ponied Joey to the arena and we walked around. So far so good.

I increased to a trot. Not so good. Joey stopped, would not go forward, and the lead rope had no choice but to leave my hand, quickly. He immediately started eating grass when free of my grasp. Great...Now he's been rewarded for getting loose. This is going to have to be undone. The lesson is going badly.

I dismount. Woody stays ground tied. Thank God at least I have one steady horse during this adventure. I pick up Joey's lead line and start him longeing. Like hell I'm letting him think he can escape me and eat grass!

I try again. Walking is fine. I put Woody in a trot, and Joey doesn't keep up. Despite a half dally, Joey's strength and mass is easily able to escape my grasp. More grass eating until I can catch up with him from the ground. This is not going to work. Think! More longeing for respect. Get his feet moving. He's good and sweaty now.

I start walking on ground with him on lead line; then I jog. He shows resistance. IMMEDIATE longeing! Jog him out as he's trotting from the longeing. Now, it's working. He's trotting behind me. More work transitioning from walk to trot as I lead him. I'm not in shape for this. I won't be able to do this for long.

Mount up again and try again. Maybe he's getting the idea that the release is to move forward. Better results. He's trotting while ponied. But he stops after a bit, and he's almost escaped me. But I'm circling now with Woody when I feel him start to balk.

Another dismount and more longeing for respect. But I'm getting steamed, probably not a good thing. I leave him tied. He paws and tries to reach grass, but I've tied him well, so he's just going to have to stand there.

Ride Woody and work on lead departures and cantering. Need some relief from this 4 year old. Woody is a dream.

Try again with Joey, and slightly more success. OK. End on a good note. Walks back ponied to trailer, where he loads VERY well. The longeing has helped, I suppose.

Arrive home. Leave Woody saddled and tied. Take Joey to round pen and work on trot and canter, since he hadn't cantered today up to this point. He transitions very well. Not even a cow kick. Again, the longeing for respect has worked to take a lot of the fresh off. Make Joey do more right leads than left. He has to be corrected for wanting to take the left lead when circling right a few times, but mostly picks up the right lead well. Stays in gait very well. Again, that's the longeing, I think, paying off. Working off my verbal cues. No change in energy really required. He is remembering.

Good join up. Work on walk and trot from ground as I lead him back to barn. He's still a little slow to pick this up.

Shower, then bed. I'll try again tomorrow. Lots to think about tonight. Already googling how to train a horse to pony. Have new ideas from Clinton Anderson. I think I'll have more success tomorrow.

4 year old horses...they really have a lot to teach me.

Friend's Accident On a Horse.

2011-08-19T11:49:00.000-07:00

This has been a hard one to write. A few of you may remember that I rode at a place in Blanco, TX recently. During that ride, I rode with a friend, Alex. He had recently purchased a beautiful, palomino mare. The story was this: 6 year old mare, neglected recently by being underfed, allegedly well trained, good temperament, etc. The fellow he bought the horse from was willing to accept payments for the horse, bring Alex along in his riding, and help to put weight on the horse. I had no role in this purchase except to support my friend.

Well, when I took Lola to ride with Alex in Blanco, Tx, I had the chance to meet and ride this palomino mare. She was a good sized horse, a little thin, but solidly built and big boned. You could tell she was going to get huge with the right feed. You could also tell she was nervous, braced, and too much horse for Alex. She was high-headed and reluctant to canter. And Alex didn't know enough tricks to get her soft. With the help of the local cowboy, he was escalating his aids to get her to canter: leg kicks, clucking, yelling, screaming, cussing, and smacking her on the hind end with the rein end. She was, of course, only getting harder and harder to canter and requiring more and more stimuli. I could see a real rodeo about to happen. Thankfully, the local cowboy had to run off, and so this left the arena to Alex and me. To this point, I had been riding mostly on one end of the arena keeping my thoughts to myself and focusing on Lola.

But now, I joined Alex in riding, and I encouraged him to ride next to Lola and me. As I thought she would, his mare cantered more easily when she was asked to canter and follow Lola and me. The palomino mare was obviously feeling scared, wanting for leadership, and trying to figure out how to get away from the stimuli she'd been receiving without really understanding. She was really not in a place to ride independently from Lola, and Lola was distracting her from working.

Alex offered me a ride on his mare, and I reluctantly accepted. I don't like riding in saddles other than my own, and I was really wishing for a night latch with this new horse. I mounted well enough, noting that she was a tall horse and it was a long way down. I never really got the stirrups the way I wanted them. And when I tried to flex her from the saddle, she was just one big muscle and braced tight. This was no way to ride a horse. I did some hindquarter yields, and this got her thinking, which was better than braced. I did a little more flexing, and was making small progress with letting her realize that I was going to be offering a "release" quickly. But by this point, she was already too braced and wired to really get soft in just a few minutes, so I didn't do much more than walk and trot. I don't even remember if I asked for the canter much. It was clearly a disaster waiting to happen, and I didn't feel like getting bucked. I surrendered her back to Alex, and we finished the ride in the arena without challenging his horse much more.

I'm a big believer in: ask, tell, promise. In fact, I don't usually ask more than twice for something from my horse. If I move my arms forward and start walking from the saddle, that's me asking my horse. If the horse doesn't move forward, then I'll tell the horse to move with more forward hands and more energy from my seat. If the horse still isn't responding, heaven help that horse, because I will use everything in my arsenal to get that horse moving forward and I will not stop. And if I have to get on the ground and move the horse around for safety reasons, I will make that horse wish I had never dismounted. I never beat the horse, but I do make the horse work until I see signs of submission and softening and UNDERSTANDING.

If I've done my ground work, I shouldn't have to do much work from the saddle. What I saw in Alex's mare was that she needed ground work, tons of it. There was no submission, she had not accepted human leadership, and she was too darn dangerous to ride, in my opinion. I estimated 5 good round pen sessions and 10 more with longe work and lots of yielding. And my first rides with her would be in a riding round pen with less distractions. Only then, once she was moving freely into a canter at the FIRST ask, would I bring her out into the arena. I don't know where she came from, or what form of neglect she had received other than under-feeding, but there was a lot to learn about this horse before I would have felt comfortable with her.

But we survived that ride, and chalked it up to an adventure, and I got busy with work.

Alex went back to ride her about 10 days later. He took his family with him, and mounted her to ride in the arena. He asked her to canter, and she quickly started bucking. He was thrown, landed hard, and immediately had no function of any of his limbs. He was airlifted to a local hospital, where it was determined he suffered a C7 and T1 verterbral body fracture with some subdural bleeding. He recovered limb function about an hour after the fall, but will require a fusion surgery in the near future. He is looking to sell his horse back, and has been advised by his physicians to never ride a horse again.

I consider Alex to be a very lucky man. I went to the hospital a few hours after the event, and I can tell you he did not look pretty. The community has been praying for him, and I hope he makes a full recovery.

I, in no way, blame the horse. She might make a fine mount one day, for the right person. But she will need a skilled rider and some time.

It's just the same old story of a young horse with an inexperienced rider.

I felt really badly for a while that I didn't do more to keep Alex off that horse, but I've forgiven myself and reminded myself that I can't rescue a grown man. But I do think I'd do some things differently if I had to do it all over again. I'd probably be much more outspoken about my concerns. But short of that, I don't know what could have been done.

I hope this writing helps someone...

Joey's Work in Progress

2011-08-08T08:51:00.000-07:00

I've had a few more rides on Joey. There have been highs, and lows.

Behavior: He continues to show a little bit of interest in mares, my mare Lola in particular. Hard to say if he's acting like a stallion or just a co-dependent horse. Lola is much the same way towards him. I think they have a crazy, co-dependent thing going on at the moment. Yuck.

Under saddle: He is becoming VERY responsive to subtle cues. Wonderfully voice trained for gaits, and stopping very nicely with just seat cues. Between my seat and my legs, I feel like I'm hardly in his mouth at all. It's a very cool feeling. And it keeps him tuned in to me. I just love riding this way, and like that he is a horse with whom I can do this.

He is having great difficulty taking the right lead. He wants to take the left lead, no matter how much I position and cue him for the right lead. He was not this unbalanced pre-surgery. As a reminder, his retained testicle was on the right side. I'm wondering if this has anything to do with his reluctance to take the right lead?

He will take the right lead in the round pen, with me off his back. But he does start with the left lead, and then does a flying lead change to the right when I pressure him. Might be he just needs to build up the right side, both physically AND mentally.

He is also a little shy about offering me his right side. So of course, I make him give it to me, gently.

I also saddle my horses starting from the right. I swing the saddle on him from the right side, let down my cinches, and THEN walk to the left to complete the process. It's a trick I learned along the way that reduces one trip around the horse. Most people throw the saddle up from the left, walk around to the right to let down the cinches, and then walk BACK to the left to complete the process. Doesn't make any sense once you try it my way, in my opinion.

He was a slight freak about me swinging up the saddle from the right side when I first got him, but he accepts it all now. And I like to think it's a good way to "build up" his right side to accept sensory data readily. I also will occasionally mount from the right. Although that feels as weird to me as it does the horse!

Trailer loading: Much better, but still wants to ride backwards in the stock trailer. In the slant load, he won't have a choice. But I haven't decided if I'll get serious about changing this or not, because I would probably want to ride backwards in a stock trailer too.

Round penning: He is always a little hot for the first 5 minutes or so, with lots of bucks and a big show when asked to do anything. He'll tear around the round pen for several laps to get the fresh off. Once he settles in, he does very well and responds nicely. But that fresh attitude at the start has become a pattern for him. I attribute it to the paddock he is confined to most of the day. I think if I could give him the larger turn out that the other horses enjoy, he'd be less fresh, because he would have been walking around all day.

Overall, he is as good from the ground as my paso fino, and that's saying a lot because my paso fino Vaquero has excellent ground manners.

A ride on Joey

2011-08-01T09:06:00.000-07:00

Even though I knew Joey was not in great shape, I needed to make some time for him. And I was itching to ride him, so I loaded him up and headed down the road to a friend's place to ride.

My friend's place has a big round pen in which to ride. I've never measured it, but it's at least 60 feet, maybe more. It's not a great round pen to train your horse from the ground, but it's a nice one to ride in, because the large size makes it less taxing on the horse.

She also has a nice sized arena, with good footing and solid rails. It's a good place to work on cantering circles, and lead departures.

Joey loaded better than he has been, and was pretty quiet on arrival. I was on the look out for any mares, especially ones in heat. We rode in the round pen after a brief longe session. He offered no buck, no foolishness, and was just a little lazy to go into the canter.

We moved over to the arena, and worked on the basics. He did well, but the rust showed initially. He also showed me his conditioning has gone to heck. He cantered better, but he was huffing and puffing quickly. I didn't push it. We focused mainly on transitions from the walk to trot and back down. I want him moving immediately and slowing immediately when I change my energy. He picked it up pretty quickly.

Overall, a good ride. I think I'll be riding over there more frequently. It offers good training facilities, and plenty of distractions and variety. I think that will be good for him and keep him challenged.

A Ride in Blanco,TX on Lola

2011-07-28T10:16:00.000-07:00

While I am very interested in getting Joey back in shape and riding, I do have 3 other horses that need riding, and I have some updates where they are concerned.

I am strongly considering entering an endurance ride to take place on October 1, 2011. I have yet to decide which horse to use, however. Woody, my grade horse of unclear background that I'm pretty sure is an Azteca, has great endurance and is super-broke, but has a rougher trot than I care to ride for miles on end. Vaquero, my paso fino with tons of brio, has a smoother gait and more motor to cover miles, but can be tough to calm down, and I worry he won't get his pulse down fast enough to complete a 25 miler. So I have stepped up riding them both on alternate occasions, and will probably make up my mind as they progress. I plan on riding one and ponying the other when I can't find friends to help me ride them.

Vaquero after a recent bath.

Vaquero

Woodrow "Woody" and his amazing chest girth

Woody from the other side showing off his mane.

Yesterday, by buddy Alex told me about a place up the road in Blanco, TX, run by a cowboy. He said they had some cutting horse training going on over there, so I thought it worth a look-see. The cowboy's name was Dick, was about 6 foot 5 inches tall, and was quite a colorful character. He did have those ropes that run a flag back and forth, and he told me I could bring Joey over there for a few months, and get him used to tracking that flag. Apparently, that's part of cutting training.

Dick proceeded to give me a few tips for riding Lola, all of which were appropriate, and things I knew, but had gotten sloppy about. He reminded me to NOT lower my hands, keep them up. Give reining cues from a more up the neck position, etc.

Lola rode well, and we worked on correct lead departures, always a challenge for her. She is very left lead dominant. She would barely take the right lead EVER when I first got her. Even at liberty in the field, I don't recall ever seeing her in the right lead. But after some work, I've been getting her in the right lead more often. We were riding in a nice big arena, with good footing, and so we worked on cantering in circles and for long stretches. She did very well.

After one terrible stop, all my fault, we worked on her stops too. Dick saw my terrible stop, where she stopped quickly on her front end and with me jammed into the saddle horn, and he quickly went about correcting my behavior. Of course, I had NOT given her time to stop. I had just been riding and then slammed on the brakes. After his not so subtle reminder, I took care to lead the stop with my seat, energy, and only last and gently, did I add the reins. Her stops were much better, and I didn't impale myself on the saddle horn. Why is it always my damn fault when I'm riding the horse? Why couldn't it just ONCE be the horse's fault?

The country was beautiful, Texas Hill Country gorgeous. Lola did well, and it was a lot of fun to be riding in a new place. I hope to go back more often, and hope to add more stories from this place to my storybook of horse adventures.

Surgery for Joey

2011-07-25T12:44:00.001-07:00

Hmm...can I eat these shavings?

His home away from home.

Joey underwent surgical correction for his cryptorchidism at the Texas A&M Vet School on July 12th, 2011, under the direction of Dr. Peter Rakestraw. He underwent laparoscopic evaluation on both sides, and the retained testicle was found on the right side, intra-abdominal position, and very high. It was well proximal to the inguinal ring, and was never a testicle that had descended and then "sucked back up". This testicle had never descended and was never going to descend.

There were no complications. In fact, the only tough part of the experience was the shock of seeing the large area of skin that had to be shaved and prepped. It is easy to see from these pics, that grullo colored horses are truly "black duns".

This is the right side, where the testicle was removed

They explored the left side as well, to confirm there was no testicular tissue on that side.

He has been recovering well. I removed the sutures on July 24th, 2011. He never experienced any drainage from any of the incision sites. That was a big concern of mine, given the flies this time of year, but it proved to be a non-issue.

He is cleared to return to work 2 weeks post-op, which is today, July 26th, 2011, and I'll start him in the round pen and bring him back into shape with ground work for 7-10 days.

He needs some more time to grow his hair back, but it's progressing well. His latest pics are below.

You can just see some peach fuzz coming in...

Can't wait to get him all shiny again.

His behavior has slowly been improving. He's always been a good horse, but very easily distracted by mares. Since I've had him back, he has progressively been less attentive to my mare. Lola. I've only seen 1-2 erections in the last 2 weeks, where that had been 1-2 an hour before the surgery! He seems more submissive as well. I guess the real test will start as I put him back to work, and increase his exposure to mares and other geldings.

Through all of this, the persons (2nd owners of the horse) I bought the horse from have been helpful and paid for the entire cost of the surgery. I appreciate their willingness to do the right thing. As we all know, this isn't always the case in the horse world.

Why did Joey even have to endure this surgery? Well, it started with an unscrupulous veterinarian who was willing to perform a partial castration on a horse. Clearly, only the left testicle was ever present, and was removed. More ethical vets will not proceed with castration if they only palpate one testicle. They inform the owner that to PROPERLY geld the stud, a more extensive surgery will be needed, and they will not perform a partial castration. The surgery to remove the retained testicle is then performed at a later date, when BOTH testicles can be definitively removed at the same time.

When the unethical vet performed a partial castration, the owner then had the responsibility to disclose this condition to potential buyers, or correct it.

I can tell you with certainty that the vet who performed the castration does not follow ethical practices, because he admitted it to me. I called him, and he told me "If there is only one testicle, and the owner wants me to remove it, then I remove it". He then went on to tell me that he tells the owner that the horse only had one testicle to remove. When I asked if he had records to document that he disclosed this, he told me he had no records of the procedure. Keep in mind, this "gelding" was performed 2 years ago. I spoke with 3 other vets who told me it a requirement to keep records for far longer than that.

So we know the vet had no problem with performing a partial castration. But I'll never know if he told the owner about the condition.

I asked the original owner/breeder if she remembers the procedure. She stated she was out of town when the procedure was performed, that the vet was not her usual vet, and that she was not told the horse only had one descended testicle.

In any event, the horse was sold as a gelding at the age of 2. Seeing as he was young, and kept mostly around other geldings, and has a naturally good disposition, he never was reported as acting "studdy". The 2nd owners sold him to me as a gelding at age 4, and I firmly believe they never knew about his cryptorchidism. At my place, he was exposed to new geldings, and a mare in heat, and his "stud" behavior became quickly apparent to me. Chemical testing revealed his elevated testosterone levels.

A few people in this horse's case did NOT do the right thing. This could have truly been a disaster for me, the horse, or some other poor unfortunate to encounter a "gelding" who was not truly a gelding. I mean, who thinks that their gelding isn't a gelding? I thank God that I'm a physician, and fairly distrustful of newly purchased horses, or I may have never questioned Joey's behavior or pursued the testing needed to make his diagnosis.

And I also thank The Jones's (sellers of Joey and 2nd owners), for not leaving me hanging through this experience and for paying for Joey's surgery. I know his condition was not their fault, but they did the right thing anyway, and that's good karma, and I know it will bring them blessings in the future.

Yet another lesson in the wonderful world of horses!

Cryptorchidism rears its ugly head...

2011-07-03T13:12:00.000-07:00

Thus far, I have posted only great things about Joey. He has been a nice horse. He has shown steady improvement in all areas. I was really hoping he was going to be all that I had hoped he would be.

EXCEPT for a few things. The first time I turned him out with the rest of my herd, which included a mare and two geldings at the time, he charged at every horse in the herd, acted very possessive of the mare, and bit all the other geldings to hell. He reared on his back legs and was very aggressive in rearing to paw at my alpha gelding. I had never seen the alpha gelding have to respond that vigorously to get another gelding in line. And I watched the whole thing; Joey initiated the aggression, no question. That entire episode lasted about 15 minutes tops, before I caught the horses up and separated everyone.

After that, Joey stayed in the back paddock for a week, to allow him to interact with the other horses in a more safe manner. Later, I tried to turn him out with another colt gelding that joined my herd. They had an acre to themselves. I had to stop that experiment after just a day or two, because the other colt gelding was getting severely bitten by Joey.

So except for a few brief periods of time, Joey has been by himself, either in an acre turnout area, or in a large paddock. He just never seemed to get along with the rest of the herd.

A few weeks ago, my mare Lola came into heat. She was very brazen in her attempts to get Joey's attention. And he returned her attention. It was very difficult to walk him anywhere near her while she was in heat, because he would tug on the lead line and whinny loudly to her. At one point, I had him in a stall next to her for all of 5 minutes before I had to pull him out and move him away from her because he was acting as if he would tear the stall down to get to her. He was on his rear legs, and looked ready to mount her.

The neighboring mares came into heat about the same time as Lola, and while the other geldings just acted normally, Joey would whinny loudly and pay gobs of attention to the mares.

I took Joey to a roping practice, to work the steers in the chute from one end of the arena to the other. Joey worked well, until he spotted a mare, and then he dropped a full erection and began to whinny loudly to her. He was easily distracted and couldn't keep his mind on the cows when she was around.

Also, I had noticed that Joey drops and achieves a full erection often. Just about every time he's handled as a matter of fact.

Through it all, Joey has been easy to work with while riding and in the round pen, as long as a mare isn't anywhere too close and not in heat. But bring a mare too close by, and he will shift all attention to her, and ignore me completely, until she moves off and I get him to focus on me.

This behavior concerned me enough to ask my vet about it. He didn't hesitate in telling me he thought we should check Joey's testosterone levels. So at the recent vet check, we did that, in addition to pulling wolf teeth and floating his teeth.

The results are definitive, and we did use HCG to stimulate and checked levels 1 and 2 hours post HCG. Joey has cryptorchidism. His testosterone levels were CLEARLY abnormally high for a "gelding".

Joey is a great horse, but his behavior towards other geldings and mares is now explained by the effects of testosterone, and the fact that he is not a true gelding.

I am in talks with the breeder that owned Joey at the time of his "castration" and with the person from whom I bought the horse. I hope we can all work this out. Joey needs corrective surgery. Deep palpation and inspection while sedated for the teeth floating revealed no testicles, so the testicle or two that he retains, is higher than can be felt, and he will need surgery to remove it (them).

I am really sad about this whole thing. I think Joey is neat little horse. But for what I paid for him, and for what I want, he isn't going to work out. He will need a surgery estimated to cost $1,000 and a 6-10 week recovery period. That takes him out of the summer fun and training I had hoped to do with him. And there is no assurance that the surgery will correct his aggressive behavior, particularly at this late age. I am hopeful for him, however, and beyond correcting his behavior, I want to him to have the surgery to remove the intra-abdominal testicles(s) that are at high risk of developing cancer.

Evening ride with full moon

2011-06-14T21:17:00.000-07:00

Too hot to do anything until about 8pm tonight, but then we had the full moon to light the way.

My oldest daughter V joined James and I in a ride in the front pasture. Both my daughters are enrolled in a horse camp for the week. They are riding horses bareback, and both have been walking and trotting. My oldest V, especially needed this camp. She has previously ridden in poor balance and without confidence. But the camp seems to be doing wonders for her, because she had much better posture on Lola this evening. She even commented how much easier it felt to ride in the saddle versus bareback, which is exactly what I had hoped she would experience.

I rode the grullo, Joey, and James rode his colt Big Mack. He and I worked on transitions, with lots of walk, trot, and canter. I really opened up Joey and let him run this evening, and he showed me good stamina and a motor. I just love transitioning him from the canter to the trot, because his trot is so smooth, it isn't a rough transition. I sometimes can't even tell when he has broken into the trot. He is almost as smooth as my paso fino; I'm not kidding.

V had a challenge with Lola, because Lola is in heat. She was acting quite the hussy, which was a big distraction to the grullo. But James and I showed V how to yield Lola's hindquarters with her leg, and V thought that was the cooolest thing. That helped to keep Lola focused and it helped V to feel confident. Lola has remembered what James had been drilling into her with all his rides on her over the last several weeks, and V really appreciated Lola's responsiveness.

All told, we had about 2 hours of horse time and bonding. I can't wait to see how my daughters progress in this horse camp. V is doing another week later this month. My hopes are high, but I'm trying to be low key about it and just let things happen. That's a real challenge for me!

It just gets better and better...

2011-06-06T20:02:00.000-07:00

What a mug!

Where to begin?

Today I received Joey's (the grullo) papers. I knew his genealogy already, but these were the official papers. It listed the previous owners, and his breeder. I googled her name, and gave her a call. And I heard stories of his life as a foal.

The breeder is Helen Cox with Chance Cutting Horses. She remembered Joey right away, and told me to kick my feet up while she told me stories about Joey. He was always a calm, cool temperament kind of horse. She told me he was one of those horses she hated to let go, because he was that good. He would follow her around while she did chores, picking up her tools and trailing after her like a dog. He was always easy to catch. He was not imprinted, but she did handle him a lot as a foal. He was not a big bucking horse with his first rides, and barely offered resistance. He earned the scar on his right hind end rushing through a gate. That cut earned him a trip to the vet in Fredericksburg, and sutures. That explains the scar!

Looking gangly in this pic..love the low headset.

He was gelded at about 1.5 years. He comes from a lot of cutting blood, with proven money earners. Joey was a very smart foal and learned quickly. His sire is 15.1 HH and his dam is 14.1 HH. She told me that many offspring of the sire grow late, and she advised that Joey would probably grow until he is about 6 years old. That's a good thing, because I'd actually like to see him a little taller. He's a stout 14.1 HH at present.

It turns out Chance Cutting Horses, where Joey's sire and dam still reside, and where they train cutting horses, is only 60 miles from my house! I was invited to come out and see what they have to offer, and I intend to take them up on that. How cool would it be to see Joey's sire and dam, and maybe put joey through his training paces with his breeder?

It was a really neat conversation, capped off with some pics of Joey as a youngster, some of which are included in this post. You can see his sire and dam at the website of Chance Cutting horses. His sire is HOLI CHRISTMAS QUI and his dam is HICK BAR N GRULLO.

So I was definitely fired up to ride him today. James had his horse "Big Mack" back from training, and so we saddled up and hit the front pasture. We cantered circles, trotted all over, worked on stops and one rein stops, and yielding hindquarters. Joey did great, and it was the most I've cantered him in one session. We cantered enough for my abdominal muscles to start cramping.

On the way back to the barn, I rocked him back on his back end, and used the free end of my mecate reins to encourage him to step lively, and put him into a 360 degree spin. It was smooth and nicely controlled, a nice crossing of his front legs, just what I've always wanted to be able to do on a horse. And the best part is that James saw it and can serve as my witness. I was actually dizzy after the spin. It was awesome!

Joey is the 7th horse I've purchased in my lifetime. I've been trying to step up my horsemanship along the way, to be able to appreciate a really good horse when he came along. So far, Joey has fit the bill. It's pretty apparent that the only limit to Joey is going to be me. I am looking forward to the challenge.

The end

Voice command in round pen...

2011-06-06T09:37:00.000-07:00

I am not prone to teaching "tricks" to my horses. But I do find myself vocalizing for gaits, as it seems to remind me to use a different rhythm in each gait. For example, I think 1-2-3-4 for the walk. I think 1-2 1-2 for the trot. And I think 123 123 for the canter. And I try to ride with that rhythm and ASK for that tempo while round penning.

I also say "WAALK" at the same time I ask for a walk in the round pen. I say "tRRROT" for the trot. And finally, I say "canTER" for the lope. "Woah" is reserved for stopping. Everything I say is accompanied with the appropriate change in energy and position relative to the drive line, to achieve the desired gait, followed by a release of pressure once the horse is in the appropriate gait. Make sense?

And while I don't think I want my horse responding to just my voice, it does seem to help us both figure out which gait I am asking for. It helps to lead to consistency, in my opinion. Also, I'm not incessantly kissing to my horse for more energy. I just repeat my voice command. And it is more readily apparent to me if I am asking more than once for a gait when I vocalize the gait I'm after, instead of realizing after the fact that I've been kissing for the canter for 3 revolutions around the round pen! I want my horse to go into the gait I've asked for the FIRST time I ask for it, not the 4th or 5th time.

Well, the grullo has really picked up on this. Yesterday, I was too pooped to ride, after mucking stalls and spending 2 hours on the tractor spreading manure. But I did want to work a horse, so I round penned the grullo. He is round penning MUCH better, and yesterday was his best effort ever. And he was going into gait on my voice. We did a lot of gait transitions: walk, trot,canter, trot, walk, canter, etc. He is maintaining his gait much better and with a good tempo. Afterward, we did some longeing, and he is yielding hindquarters better. Overall, he is showing REMARKABLE progress. Truly, he is one of my "quicker" horses.

3 more rides on the grullo

2011-06-03T19:29:00.000-07:00

I've worked with the grullo about three more time since last post. He's round penning much better. I have control of all 3 gaits now, and he is MOSTLY connected to my energy in the round pen. I'm beginning to be able to read him, and can sense when he's a little "fresh" and might benefit from a round pen session before the ride. Today was one of those days, and he threw a few cow kicks in the round pen, but settled in after that. And we had no mischief while I was mounted and we were cantering.

I think he still needs time and practice to balance me while we canter and trot. He's such a little guy, that he really has to focus to carry me without losing his balance. I'm doing my best to stay centered, but he's a little "loose" anyway, and he struggles. That's my perception anyway.

I continue to flex him to keep him soft in the face. He is longeing MUCH better, yielding hindquarters for changes in direction and not quite as dramatic in his direction changes. He does fight the halter pressure a bit, and can try to run out of the trotting circle while longeing. I keep giving him little corrections to encourage him to keep looking inside while circling and to stay in an arc.

Rode in front pasture and worked on transitions: walk, trot, and canter. He's still needing reminders to stay straight, and can move like a drunken sailor. I try to keep my shoulders back and just look at a target off in the distance and let my hands and legs do the rest to keep him moving in a straight line towards our target. I can report improvement in this area, but not mastery.

He wolfs his food like no other horse I've ever seen. I put rocks in his grain bin to slow him down today, and that worked. Until he figured out how to just pick up the rocks and remove them from his bin. I'm going to have to start feeding him from a hay bag, because he's finishing his ration of hay in half the time as the other horses.

He's a very quick study. Show him twice, and he's got it. He really "searches" for the answer. Good boy.

4th Ride with the Colt

2011-05-25T08:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was just a trail ride kind of day. I saddled the colt, and jumped on cold back. We warmed up in the front pasture, and then headed to the trails, with James riding Lola for company.

We did one of our easier, traditional trails first. And along the way, the grullo freaked a little with some big landscape rocks. You know, the ones that are big to prevent cars from driving on the grass. I guess he suspected there was something lurking around them, because he startled in place, and then was slow to approach them. I HAD been asking him to walk right between them...what was I thinking, huh? But he is a very curious horse, and so he approached and then sniffed and kind of licked the rock. Then he snorted and was quickly over his fear. We then proceeded to weave in and out of these rocks without further difficulty.

We encountered trash cans and trash bags billowing in the wind along the trail, and he encountered each new thing with curiosity rather than fear, and I gave him all the time in the world to check these things out and satisfy himself. Once he had completed his investigation, the object held no further fear for him.

We walked and trotted a lot on this trip. There was no cantering. I was encouraging him to walk faster. He has a wonderfully smooth trot, and I alternated between sitting his trot and posting his trot. Posting his trot is easy and requires very little effort. He is improving daily and moving in a straight line and maintaining his speed.

He kept his head a little higher this ride, due to all the interesting things there were to see. This allowed me to give him some bit pressure and remind him to lower his head to the pressure. He responded well. I didn't do more than ask for it down and then release immediately. Later, I'll ask for longer and longer stretches of vertical flexion from him, but this was a ride designed to get him excited about trail riding, and not a strict training/punishing ride. We did practice our one rein stops and there was plenty of lateral flexion exercises as well to remind him to stay soft.

I'm out of the saddle for the next 2 days, but hopefully he'll get some more riding time on Friday and the weekend.

We seem to be making progress daily.

3rd ride with grullo colt

2011-05-23T20:58:00.001-07:00

James was back in town tonight, and it gave me the chance to show him the colt.

I caught the grullo from front pasture. Love how this horse is always walking to me to be caught. No chasing him all over the place.

Tacked him up. I think I finally have his tack figured out. 30 inch cinch is doing the trick. He's a little guy.

Longed him as a warm up. Made him yield hindquarters and square up for direction changes. Quick round pen work just to keep him loose. Giving me the canter more easily.

Rode him in round pen. Trotting and cantering with less fuss, more subtle cues.

James got on him and put him through some paces. Had him spinning! Nice work on his back end. Spins weren't fast, but they were there.

Finished with some nice walk and trot time in front pasture. Had him side passing with energy.

He needs more work at his stop and backing up, but he is doing a little better every day. Sweet riding.

2nd ride on the grullo...

2011-05-22T19:53:00.000-07:00

The view from the grullo. My friend Alex on Woody in front.

I caught a break with work this evening, and was able to work with the grullo. I didn't have all the time in the world, so this was going to be a saddle up and ride evening.

He is still dancing during saddle up, so this will need some work. I think I'll sack him out with the saddle pad and just go back to basics.

We warmed up in the round pen. He was poking along with his slow walk. He trotted easily. But he was giving me all kinds of grief about maintaining his trot. And he was resistant to go into canter and stay in canter. I was squeezing with thighs, then calves, and finally heel, but I was getting no response. I even reached back to swat him with my hand, but he would not canter. Finally, I gave him some kicks (with the right leg for the left lead), and I got a response. He gave me 2-3 bucks. I rode them out, and promptly got him trotting again. I don't blame him for bucking. I was kicking him pretty good. But it was all I could do to get him moving. I had exhausted all my other leg aids. At that point, maybe a crop would have helped.

After a few times around, I dismounted and round penned him from the ground, asking for and getting, the canter. I did this in both directions. Then I mounted again and tried for the canter again.

I got the canter more readily, but he has this habit of dropping his head that is a little disconcerting. But I do NOT accept that he cannot read my cues and that he can't canter more readily. With more time, he should be able to read my cues and move out.

We then went to the front pasture and rode around and finally hit a trail. I cantered him a bit in an open spot, but it was still too much work to get it from him.

I'll keep at this. I know he can get it, and was already improving by ride's end. I even rode him some more at the canter in the round pen when we got back from the trail. I do NOT want this to be a sticking point. He and I have many things to work on, but moving out and cantering needs to be second nature. I will not have a horse that won't canter.

I think the lack of ground work after a week off led to some of the problem. But he's sound again, so the work will begin in earnest this week.

Running sliding stop

2011-05-21T19:28:00.000-07:00

Not much time to ride this weekend due to work constraints. But I did move the grullo to the front pasture to let him stretch his legs and so I could see him move. He seemed perfectly fine while walking and trotting, and immediately trotted over to investigate the mare next door and across the fence. He couldn't get into too much trouble, though, because the fence is sturdy and the top is an electric hot wire.

In the evening, after my work day was done, I went to fetch him from the pasture to bring him to his stall for the evening. On my way, the mare next door was brought in by her owners for feeding. This worked up the grullo, who proceeded to run full speed along the fence line. And this is where it got fun. He ran at full out and then stopped on his hind end mere feet before the fence in a sliding stop! He did this twice. It was an impressive sight.

After this display, he calmly walked over to me, and I haltered him with no fuss.

But this is why I bought this horse; this is what I was hoping for. He has athleticism that my other horses don't possess. If he can do that stop at will, it will be my challenge to get that same stop from him under saddle.

Oh, and I think he's over his soreness from earlier this week. If I can get done early tomorrow, there might be some work for him in the evening.

Such a great temperament...

2011-05-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

The grullo gelding seemed to be moving better yesterday. Still a slight limp, but barely noticeable. That means he has been steadily improving.

I groomed him, and I have to tell you, it was quite an experience. This young horse will just stand there and fall asleep with grooming. I rubbed his ears, inside and out, stuck my fingers up his nose, groomed his mane, sprayed fly spray all over him, and he just got sleepy and almost dozed off.

Later, while standing next to me in halter, he came over to me and just gently nuzzled his entire face into my armpit. I mean, I had him in a headlock, and he seemed to enjoy it, just standing there with droopy eyes. And yet, if I ask him to move a little, he'll do that too.

I have been picking his hooves daily, and he has improved every day. He is second only to Woody in how well he gives me his hooves. With Woody, I can practically lift his rear hooves to my chest. Woody is that soft and flexible, and he's 17 years old. The grullo is almost that good.

I can't wait for this guy to get healthy so I can work with him again. At this point, I suspect the kicks to the chest that he took from Lola resulted in muscle bruising, and he's slowly recovering from that. At least, I hope that's what it was. I've gone over his joints every day, and there is no swelling I can find. I can't really find any point tenderness either, but I do suspect it's his right front that is the issue, based on how he's moving.

Due to lack of horse work to do, James and I cut down the dead oak tree in front of the barn to occupy our time. That was enough adventure for us, trust me, and a story in itself...

Trail ride.

2011-05-17T19:47:00.000-07:00

Grullo appeared to be moving better today. I even thought of riding him, until he took 3 steps in the round pen, and it was apparent he is still hurting. I'm going to give him several days, but if no improvement, then he's going to the vet.

I left him tied again today while we headed out on a trail ride. Can never hurt to leave a horse hanging for a while.

Before we left, I tried my gaited saddle on the grullo again. I'm happy to report that it fits him better than I thought. With the right pad, the shorter skirt just fits him. His shoulders look free, and his hips are not running into the skirt. Looks like this will be the saddle he gets ridden in until I figure things out. The skirt on this saddle is 24.5". The most this little guy could probably take is 25". I swear, this gaited saddle has come in very handy. The wider shoulder area means more freedom, and since the tree has the front end of a paso, but the rear of a QH, most QH's ride very well in this saddle.

James rode Lola, I rode the paso, and my friend Alex rode Woody. It was a great ride, and we found a mostly undeveloped hill in the neighborhood to climb. By hill, I mean a big, steep hill. It was a blast, and it broke up the routine for the horses. We cantered plenty, and the horses really did well.

The grullo was happy to see us return, but he didn't look worried at being left. There's that good attitude again.

I'm frustrated the the grullo isn't getting all this great riding time, but I'll just have to wait on him. For now, enjoy the pics.

Grullo update

2011-05-16T21:18:00.000-07:00

I do not have good news...I introduced the grullo to the herd this morning, after he had been stalled next to them all night. It did not go well. He started running the mare immediately, took several of her kicks to his chest, bit the paso fino gelding, and reared to fight Woody while they both reared and pawed at each other. All this in about 10 minutes. I got him locked away in the back paddock after that, but they were still trying to fight across the fence.

I returned this afternoon to find the grullo limping in the back paddock. I found no cuts, no joint swelling. I only hope he's just bruised up. He'll be staying in the back paddock until further time has passed.

I did pick all 4 hooves. Better today.

I officially measured his height, and he's 14.1HH. Shorter than what I wanted and what was described, but I'll have to live with it. If he's an agile horse, I'll live with it. And maybe he'll put on a little more still; he's only 4.

He is definitely short backed. I tried on every saddle I own, including my gaited saddle with the shortest skirt and the round skirt. That one fit him the best, but still had some issues. He is not going to ride well in a standard saddle. He will need to have his shoulders and hips free, and a short, rounded skirt is the only way to do that. Unfortunately, I'm all out of extra money to fit this horse at this time. Plus, I was hoping to one day rope on him, so he's going to need a short, round skirt in a roping saddle. Good luck on that.

I left the grullo tied and rode the paso fino today while James rode Lola. She is doing very well, by the way.

Frustrating day. New horse is too injured to ride after fights that were all his doing, shorter than advertised, and hard to saddle fit. I hope he makes up for it all when he's working cows.

New Horse!

2011-05-15T19:22:00.000-07:00

Took ownership of a 2007, AQHA gelding, grullo morning of May 15, 2011. I have been wanting a younger, more athletic horse, and this guy seemed to fit the bill.

He has the mousy brown color of the grullo. And in order to be a grullo, he has to have some dun characteristics.

Definition: Grullo is a color of horses in the dun family, characterized by tan-gray or mouse-colored hairs on the body, often with shoulder and dorsal stripes and black barring on the lower legs. In this coloration each individual hair is mouse-colored, unlike a roan which is composed of a mixture of dark and light hairs. There are several shades of grullo, informally referred to with a variety of terms including black dun, blue dun, slate grullo, silver grullo, silver dun, or lobo dun.

I especially like the bronze metallic sheen he has at the right angle. He is well put together, and well muscled. He has just about ALL of the dun characteristics.

Here are some first impressions:

He traveled well. Some of my horses are weak in the knees after a 4 hour haul. He looked fresh. Maybe it's the new slant load trailer; it HAS to be more comfortable than my old open stock trailer. But he landed with plenty of pep. He is nice and slow to back out of trailer, feeling for the drop VERY carefully. I'd MUCH rather have that than a horse that bolts out and gets one or both of us hurt. I let him take his time, and didn't rush him in any way.

He didn't get all "high headed" the way many horses do when first arriving at a new place. Not a whinny from him. He just seemed starved for the hay and water I offered him. He walked around a back paddock I placed him in, and sniffed at manure piles. So far so good.

I left him for a few hours to acclimate while I did some mowing on the tractor. I got back to him, and he walked up to me to be caught. THAT was a nice change from my other horses. Only Woody, my 17 year old finished horse, ever walks up that readily. Stayed still for halter.

He gave me his front feet readily. A little tentative with the rear. But I pick my horses often, and I really ask them to give me their hind foot fully, so most horses start to get easy after a month or so with me. If not, I use ropes to "soften" their give. But I think time and slow, careful handling will get him better. I was careful to PLACE his feet down, rather than just drop them. That way they learn to place their hooves, and there's less chance they will get shy with their hooves OR step on me!

Good hard hooves. A little bulge in the rears. We'll see what my farrier says. He's never been shod.

He led to the round pen well. I didn't have to drag him, nor did he charge out in front.

Flexed well from ground. Nice give. B+ grade for flexing.

He longed well. He has definitely done this before. Good changes of direction. I didn't push him to, but he made a few good turns on his back end anyway. Small reminders needed to get him to yield hindquarters and face me. Controlled energy. Everything at a trot, which is about all I want when in that tight of a circle so as not to overstress joints cantering in a tight circle. Grade of B.

Round penning was interesting. He was reluctant to canter for long stretches. I had to really keep my energy up. I thought this would be easier, but he may be a lower energy horse that needs a little extra cue to keep up his energy. Took the correct lead every time but once, and then quickly did a flying lead change to correct. His canter needs to come easier. Turns were a mixture of inside and outside. Eventually, I will want only inside turns, but this was more about seeing where he is before getting goal oriented with my training. I quit a little earlier than I usually do, before there were obvious signs of submission, but he just stopped and then walked entire length of round pen to join up with me. I really liked the last part, especially when he doesn't even know me and I had just sent him going. He was really looking for human leadership. Round penning is a hole for him, but nothing I can't deal with. I'd grade him a C+.

He was doing so well, I decided to ride him. This is more than I had planned for him on his first day, but it was apparent that he was well started and he should be able to tolerate a ride. He stood still tied for saddling. No dancing around. Good. Grade B.

He is short-backed. My usual saddle is neither long nor short skirted, but when I positioned the saddle where I though it should fit him and keep his shoulders free, I was well into his hind end with the skirt edges. I really like a saddle to leave the shoulders and hind end free, and so this may be an issue. I have a short skirted gaited saddle that I will try on him next. He has good withers and held the saddle well. He is trim and lean, and I had to punch new holes for the rear cinch and breast collar. He's really a little thing. I taped his height and he is along the lines of 14.1. He was described as 14.3, but he is well short of that. I will re-measure him with James's help, but I don't think he's going to measure more than 14.2. This is shorter than I wanted.

I started in the round pen. He took the bridle decently; using a myler snaffle. He stood still for mounting. As soon as I mounted, he flexed to the right. On his own! Hilarious. He has obviously been taught to flex a lot from the saddle. Nothing wrong with that, as that was pretty much my plan anyway, but I appreciated the eagerness. He flexes very well from the saddle, and understood the one rein stop. We did a bunch of those. He walked well, but a little slow. I had to encourage him more than I like to for the trot and canter. He needs to be a little more tuned into my seat. I noticed this on my first ride with him pre-purchase as well. Getting him to canter required WAY too much energy on my part. A little quirt or crop might help with that. But he was also reluctant to canter in the round pen without a lot of energy from me, so he was being consistent, so that means I can correct the issue on the ground, without having to do it from the saddle, and leave my saddle time to be subtle. I don't want to "deaden" him with exaggerated cues to canter from the saddle....make sense? I want him changing speeds with subtle shifts in my energy.

He was very under control while riding. Never felt loose. Decent stop and back up. His previous owner has been working hard at collection, and the horse definitely knew to drop his head with slight bit pressure. He rounded his back nicely. He tends to over exaggerate to escape the bit, though, and his head gets very low. That's OK for now, but I'm going to be working on framing him a little better with his head in the proper position as we go along. Again, this was just a feel out ride, not very goal oriented.

We were feeling good, and I wanted to ride, so I decided to chance it and do a trail ride. He side-passed beautifully from the saddle, and stood still for me to open the gate out of the round pen. And we were out!

We met the herd in the front pasture, and I let him see my other 3 horses from across the fence. He was cool, but excited. No stupid behavior on any horse's part. Good. We hit the easiest trail in my neighborhood. We met people, dogs, other horses on the way, and he took it all in stride.

He does need some work walking in a straight line. He was walking like he had at least 2-3 beers. I've felt lots of young horses do this, and I'll just need to do some concentrated work walking directly to this fence post and that, to show him how to walk in a straight line. This is just a matter of time and practice.

He has a VERY slow walk on the trail. We alternated walking and trotting. I will work on getting a faster walk out of him, because this plodding walk is not going to work for me. We did try a few rollbacks along a fence from the trot. He gave me about 2 out of 6 great rollbacks. The other 4 were marginal. But his previous owner kind of warned me that his rollbacks weren't complete. I think I could have gotten better out of him, but this ride was just all about feeling him out. I didn't push the issue.

Overall, my riding experience was a C+ with him. He needs a faster walk, straight direction, and should require less energy to change gaits. But he was a steady mount and there was no foolishness. That's a great temperament that I can build on.

I was very pleased with him overall. He has holes, and now I know where they are, but so far, I haven't seen anything I can't handle.

Lily update...

2011-05-13T09:47:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been bitten by a horse bug, so I am close to purchasing a 4 year old registered QH in grullo color. Sale is pending a vet check, so I'll write more later. But it means I won't really have the room or time for Lily, so Breathe is coming to get her later today.

BUT, I did ride her yesterday and wanted to sum up her report from her brief camp with me.

Pre-camp summary from owner: Lily is described as a performance mare, 17 years old, with little work in the last several months, who has become anxious and hyper-reactive. She has never flexed her neck well from the ground. Round pens well with inside turns, slow to join up. Recently started to refuse being bridled with bit.

Training day 1: Horse refused to be bridled with bit. Popped lead rope during attempt, very dangerous move as I was fully engaged with horse. I never like a horse to behave in that exaggerated a manner while I am anywhere near the horse, and in this case, I was not forcing the bit, and I was literally next to and touching the horse with much of my body.

Horse was moved to the round pen, where she was VERY anxious, cantered out of control, sweating profusely, and had very little control to trainer's body language. Join up was minimal at best, even after about 20 minutes and with frequent changes in direction. Horse did not respond to moving in front of her driveline while round penning. All direction changes had to be done with exaggerated body cues.

Did not understand flexing exercises. Wanted to spin in place instead of remaining still for neck flexion. Ended session with small success at just getting her to stand still and give me her head for neck flexion with halter and lead at about 25% of full flexion.

Longed with too much energy. Wanted to canter despite quiet body language asking for trot. Did not square up well, hindquarters drifting. Fairly dangerous exercise with her energy level this high.

Training Day 2: Round pen exercises again. Still very little control, and too fast canter for the minimal stimulation the trainer was giving. Still, some improvement in getting her to trot AND canter. Good at inside turns, but there is no "submission" to her inside turns; she is just well practiced at turning that way. Join up still after 20+ minutes, but stays hooked on decently. Very distracted with stimuli outside the round pen.

Flexing better today. Still wanted to spin in place, but "remembered" from day before, and took less time to achieve still body position. Flexion at 50% of full flexion. Need to emphasize quick, obvious release to build on her neck flexion.

Longed with less energy, which is good. Not pushing her to work off her back end when changing directions to avoid over-stimulating, but eventually turns on her back end would be the goal.

Training Day 3: Left her tied for about 90 minutes.

Training Day 4: Caught her and brought her into barn. Nervous and anxious. My oldest daughter noticed "she isn't breathing". My daughter is correct; Lily is only taking shallow breaths. Had myself and my 2 daughters brush her all over to give her "hands on her body" desensitization while taking loud, deep breaths. Lily relaxed and started breathing.

Saddled with minimal fuss, but had to remind her to stand still with praise.

Round penned better. Still too hyper-reactive and not respectful of getting in front of her driveline, but less anxious. Not as sweaty. Better join up, walking towards me about 6 steps at join up.

Flexed better. "Remembered" to stay still with medium-gentle effort. Very responsive to praise and touch. Lots of try in her. Achieved 100% flexion after some time. Not consistent, but much improved.

No longeing today.

Rode her in bosal. Decently still on standing still for mounting. She bent her head to readily accept and place her head in bosal. Walked and trotted well. Good stop and back up with minimal effort.

I attempted flexing from saddle with bosal. At first, mad spinning in place. I was careful to keep legs off her. Got dizzy. When she stopped, I released. After several mionutes, she was flexing 100% to my boot while standing still on both sides. Repeated this exercise many times during ride.

Summary: Lily is an older performance mare with a lot of try and quick feet. She needs a job, and to be ridden consistently. She responds well to praise, and is a quick learner.

Currently, I grade her round penning at a C-. She needs to be relaxed, able to be controlled in to all gaits, including the walk. Needs to be joined to trainer and respect moves in front of the driveline.

I grade her longeing at a C+. She has too much energy and needs to work off her back end more with turns.

Her flexing went from an F to a C+. This was her most improved area, considering her owner said she had never flexed before.

I would also consider doing desensitization work to "sack her out". Also, remember to breathe deeply around her to ease her anxiety.

I estimate 3-4 months to bring her grades into A range, but I see no reason why she could not achieve this.

I also think Lily is best served to be a primary mount. The lack of work likely leaves her anxious and she becomes very undone. If she were ridden consistently and often, I think she still has many useful years of service. Her "try" is very good for a horse her age.

Lily...

2011-05-11T10:45:00.000-07:00

I'm going to use this space to document my work with Lily, a registered quarter horse mare about 17 years old that belongs to my friend Breathe.

Lily is a horse that I have known for some time, maybe about 4 years. I've seen her around, and I rode her once. She is a high powered mare with a lot of "go". She hasn't been ridden much, so Breathe asked me to see what I could do with her.

I attempted to ride her on Sunday afternoon, to join a riding party leaving my house, but she was very much out of control, and I elected to work her on the ground first. That day I tried to ride her, she was very anxious during saddling. She would not give me her hind legs. She was just a nervous wreck. When I went to bit her, she kept her mouth closed and CLAMPED SHUT. I've never seen an older horse do this to this extreme. I tried to use my usual technique to bit her, right hand between her ears and over her head, neck slightly bent, left hand guiding the bit in, but she would not budge her mouth open. And then suddenly, she popped her head back, and popped the lead rope! That was it for me. If I hadn't been using proper technique, she would have broken my jaw for sure.

I abandoned trying to ride her and took her to the round pen. She was a nervous wreck. I just let her run and run. I wasn't prompting her to canter, she was just off to the races. That session, I just let her get used to the round pen. It took a long time for her to even attempt to join up, and we had a few unsuccessful stops where she did NOT join up. She did make inside turns, but they were just well-trained automatic turns. There was no submission in them.

I tried flexing her, and she is stiff and braced. She also didn't know how to flex, and my cues for flexing caused her to spin in place. No biggie, most horses do that at first. After a bit, I got her to understand that flexing means just her neck, and not her whole body. But the flex I did get was very small. I'll build from that.

A second round pen session on Monday was much the same, but maybe slightly better. I longed her both sessions too, and she did decently, but still hyper-reactive.

I think she's a 4 month project, honestly. But I may only have room for her for a few weeks. I'll see what I can get done with her.

Weekend Update...

2011-04-04T12:27:00.001-07:00

Heck of a weekend...

Saturday evening I asked my youngest (almost 9 years old) if she wanted to ride her bike or ride horses. She replied, "both!". So she jumped on her bike and rode to the stables while I walked, and we proceeded to tack up Woody and Lola. I asked her if she wanted me to pony her; I'd ride Lola and pony Woody. She said no. She expressed concern that Lola had been known to kick geldings that got too close to her behind, and she didn't want to be on Woody when that happened. I told her that meant she'd be on her own with the reins. She said she understood the risks.

I put the biggest bit I have on Woody. It has 12 inch shanks and barbed wire in the mouth, with the curb chain set so tight a twitch would inflict terrible pain, a bit used previously to control wild bull elephants. No...just kidding, but when it's your daughter going solo, you do consider these things. I used a reasonable bit and spent some time going over the "choke and regrip" technique of using a loop rein. See, the kids know that I get all over them if they do what I call the "tyrannosaurus rex". You know, when they are yelling woah while they are pulling on a loop rein with their hands pulled up to their chins in a feeble arm position that means they're pulling like crazy on a loose rein that has only begun to engage the bit. So once she had the "choke and re-grip" into her muscle memory, we were off.

We walked without event to the front pasture, where we worked on rein control and turning. She was doing great, and following directions very well. The sun was setting and the evening a perfect temperature of around 75 degrees. I already considered the evening a complete success, when my daughter informed me she would like to trot.

It was all I could do to stay mounted. "You want to what?", I asked. "Trot", she replied emphatically. She further stated she wanted to go faster and was not satisfied with Woody's walking pace. I took a deep breath, reminding myself the cinch was on securely, she was helmeted, she HAD been reining well with her hands in front of the pommel, and Woody seemed to be in a good place. "OK", was my response, but I was certain my voice lacked a timbre of confidence.

She used her legs and a kiss to speed him up, gradually through a faster walk until they were doing the slowest trot Woody could muster. He's a good horse, and I'm sure he wanted to make sure his rider was capable of handling the speed before he gave it to her readily. My daughter complained that he wasn't maintaining proper pace, and she continued to use her cues to keep him at a slow trot. Before long, she was asking for a faster trot. I instructed her to circle him if he got too quick in his pace, rather than haul back on the reins. She picked this up very well, and was all smiles when she realized turning Woody was a better way of controlling his speed than asking him to "woah". I also reminded her to not get him going too fast while pointed at the gate that led out of the pasture, lest he take off. Again, she used the circle technique to check his momentum if she felt like it. She had complete control of this horse. So with her fear at a super low level, she proceeded to trot all over the front pasture, giggling and smiling as she bounced along. "This is like a ride at Fiesta Texas daddy", she exclaimed.

Mind you, I had started doing all this trotting at her side while I rode Lola, but I pulled back because I didn't want Lola and Woody to think this was some sort of race. No reason to re-visit that disaster. If you're interested, it's in a previous post.

We finished our adventure when it started to get too dark to see well, and safely maneuvered back to the barn, mounted the entire time. She kept Woodrow under control and didn't let him to do any more than slow walk back to the barn. I was the proudest papa helping my little girl off the 15.2 HH Woody, with her all smiles at her accomplishment.

After we had put away the horses, and we were headed back to the house, with her zooming in front of me on her bike, she informed me "I want to ride Lola next time and feel her trot". I was stunned. Not only had she had a good time, she had apparently mastered Woody and felt he held no further challenge, and was thus ready to move on to Lola.

We topped off the incredible evening with my version of the hero sandwich: ham sandwich with honey instead of mustard or mayo. My daughter readily accepted my version of the sandwich and made it her own. Quite a Saturday night.

Conditioning

2011-03-22T09:09:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about what happened on Lola, and all her stumbling, and I've come to the conclusion that the poor girl probably does have a little something going on in the right hind, but I also think she is not well conditioned, and breaks down a bit more when she is tired. And right now, it's too easy for her to get tired.

I have consulted with a vet, before embarking on this problem. Lola is not obviously lame. I notice her right hind moving funny, but someone who didn't live with her and see her every day, wouldn't notice it. My vet didn't nor did my trainer. But I know it's there. But until it's more obvious, there isn't much to do about it. But I can work on her conditioning.

Yesterday, James and I embarked on a more scheduled pattern of riding, to build up the horses. We jogged (read trotted) Lola and Woody for 2 miles, splitting the time posting on either shoulder so as not to hammer one shoulder more than the other. We worked on gentle collection; I kept Woody VERY collected since he's in better shape, and James rode Lola lightly collected since she isn't in great shape. There were very few stumbles, and both horses performed well.

We then went to the round pen and worked on cantering in the correct lead. My round pen is big enough for riding, and we kept the horses on the rail to keep the circle as big as possible and avoid tight circles that could unduly stress joints. Lola was doing better at taking the correct lead, although still a little reluctant to take the right lead. James did a good job of riding her in the correct position to facilitate a proper lead departure.

We cantered in each direction for 4 circles, then rested the horses. We did this for 3 sets, or a total of 12 cantering circles in each direction. Lola was wet, but not soaked or lathered at the end of this activity. Woody was warm and a touch wet, but he looked to be in better shape than Lola.

I hope to continue this program and advance it as the horses respond. FYI: Lola's manners are much better since the frequent riding has begun. In fact, all the horses' manners are improved. Amazing what giving them a job will do to sweeten their disposition.

A fall on Lola...

2011-03-13T20:43:00.000-07:00

Had a very eventful weekend, to include a lesson. But I'll skip to what happened this afternoon. I went to a friend's place to ride, in a very good arena. I've been riding Lola frequently, building up her conditioning. On Saturday, my instructor commented on what a good horse Lola is and how she appeared to be sound. But she did stumble a few times while being worked. Breathe was there and saw it happen. In fact, Lola stumbles all the time. She is a "stumbling horse". I've been concerned she has some source of lameness, but nothing has been obvious,to me or the vet or the farrier.

Today, I was riding her in the arena, and working on her right lead. She seems to be left lead dominant, so I wanted to build up her right. We were cantering, hit a slightly deeper sand area, she stumbled and went down on her head. I leaped off when it was apparent she was going down. I suffered a minor scrape, and Lola bounced back up quickly. She was dripping blood from her mouth from a tear in her lip. I checked her mouth well, but there did not appearto be any interior mouth damage. She alsomwas not limping in any discernable way.

Lola is a "stumbling horse". She stumbles at the walk just leaving the barn, she generally does better when warmed up, but the stumbles never leave her completely. She does not work off her back end, is heavy footed, and even heavy to lift her feet for picking. She is a lovely horse, nice buckskin color, 14.3 HH, 14 years old, loads well, doesn't rear or buck, and is probably for sale. I'm sure there is some reasonable explanation for why she stumbles, but I'm darned if I'll spend much money to figure it out. I'm sorry, but I can see 1-2k being spent to vet this problem, and she will just probably never be the athletic horse I want her to be. And all I can think about is what if itnhad been my daughter on her at the canter, with my knowledge that Lola stumbles often.

Lesson this Saturday...

2011-03-10T09:49:00.000-08:00

This Saturday, I'm taking a lesson with my horse mentor, Marty Wernle. Marty is an older gentleman that I worked with about 3 years ago.

You see, I had ridden horses in my youth, but had no formal instruction at that time. I just bumped along and generally did well when I was paired with an experienced horse, but did terribly with my own mount, a very INexperienced horse. I have described my adventures with Marty in a previous post.

Needless to say, I am VERY excited to be going back with the man that helped me so much to improve my riding skills. I use MANY of the things he taught me every day in my riding. I have no idea why I waited so long to call him him and continue my education. I can only say that I was anxious to get out there and start DOING. But 5 horses and 3 years later, I think I need to go back to school.

Specifically, I have certain things I want him to teach me, and I want him to teach me how to teach my horse. I want to be able to do some basic spins, and rollbacks. I'm not sure all my horses will be able to pull this off, but I want to try.

Also, I want him to confirm that some of the things I THINK I do well, I am indeed doing properly. For example, I think I'm good at teaching a horse to yield hindquarters, depart on the correct lead, stop, back up, side-pass, and cross over in the front reasonably well. But I want to be able to REALLy have a horse corss over on their front end, REALLY do a good rollback, and at least do a decent spin.

And I want to hear some of his stories. He has a way of teaching where he gets his point across, and you learn something about the history of the horse in the process.

I can't wait to ride with him again...

Just one of those special days...

2011-03-07T17:58:00.000-08:00

I love these days...the days when everything you've been working on falls together...when you and the horse feel like one organism...when the trot is held with a steady rhythm that allows you to post ever so gently, your bottom gently hitting the saddle for just a moment before it's back up again...a trot so steady and consistent it's easy to switch shoulders during posting...when the canter comes easily and with just the slightest shift of energy...departing on the correct lead....when the horse stays collected with just the slightest pinky rein pressure of bit contact in the mouth...when the stop is sure and fast...when the back up gives you 3, 4, and 5 steps backwards without resistance...when all the gates are opened as if the horse knew exactly where you needed to be to get that stubborn latch while mounted...when there is no rush to get back to the barn...I love when Woody and I are connected and united in our riding...these are the days you live for as a horseman.

Weekend rides.

2011-03-06T17:29:00.000-08:00

A great weekend in Bulverde. Ideal temperatures, mild days with high around 70.

Good ride on Woody this weekend. He's doing well, but seems to be riding better with spurs. He side-passes to open gates better with spurs to remind him to move. He is still lacking in motivation to give a great stop and back up, but improving. Continuing to ride nicely collected.

Rode Lola on Sunday night. She is doing well. Attitude improving from the frequent riding. She gave me that great fast walk I like so much. She is starting to show better conditioning, sustaining the canter for longer stretches without slowing to the trot and having to be reminded to canter. Taking both leads reasonably well, but still smoother on the left lead. Great stop and backing up like a champ. Still needs reminding to stay collected. No spurs for this girl, as she would react too much. But she needs work side-passing to the left. To the right is not a problem. I'll probably try to reinforce that with some ground work, but making her open and close a gate gives a lot of reinforcement too; nothing like a gate bumping her right side at the same time my leg is bumping her to remind her to move over to the left!

I'm never sure if the horse is the one that's more comfortable side-passing one way, or if it's me. I too am more comfortable side-passing to the right to open/close gates, and I may cue better in that direction, or may have given my horses more practice going that way inadvertently.

Ah well. Nobody's perfect.

Too long...

2011-03-04T07:29:00.000-08:00

It's been a good while since I've posted, but as Spring approaches, it's time to fire up the blog and the horses.

I gave the horses the winter off, for the most part. They have been ridden occasionally, but only maybe once a month. They got fat and woolly. Several days ago, they received their spring injections and vaccinations, and I started to get them back in shape.

Rations were cut back. They all need to drop their winter weight. Woody has been ridden about 3 times in the last 7-10 days. He was also round penned. He didn't take long to sharpen up. Already, he is stopping well, cantering on both leads easily, and riding in a collected manner. I want to focus on round penning some more, because he is my most reluctant horse to "join up" in the round pen. And I think he and the others ride better when they are more "joined up'. But he is still "the bomb" and I have serious plans to enter an ACTHA event with Woody this year.

I've been riding Lola, the grade QH mare 14 years old, as well. She has about 4 rides on her in the last several days. For the first few rides, she rode without a hitch. Quickly thereafter, she began to stumble and displayed reluctance to take the right lead. She took the left lead, but was nowhere near smooth. However, for the last few rides, she has begun to smooth out and displayed the smooth trot that she has always possessed. I am working on riding her in a more collected fashion, and working to strengthen up her neck and flexion. Her stop is excellent. And she is backing up much better than last year. As a reminder, this is my second year with Lola. Hopefully, she will remain sound. I'd like to enter some cow working events with her this year.

Vaquero, my fire breathing paso fino, has been ridden once. He did well, but is clearly out of shape. Since I do not have any plans to enter any events with him this year, it's going to be hard to find time to work him properly. I still enjoy him, but I cannot see entering him in any endurance events or ACTHA events due to his excitability. He is a great trail riding horse, but one cannot open gates easily from his back. He is so touchy to even the slightest touch, that cueing him gently can be a real challenge. He may be relegated to ground work and desensitization. Also, since I am the only one willing to ride him, he'll be my mount if guests are riding Woody and Lola. It seems no one can get past his fast moving feet long enough to realize the smoothness of the rider on his back. And frankly, he is not for a beginner. You have to watch your feet and legs so as not to cue him inadvertently.

That's it for now. Updates and pics to follow.

Trail Ride at Canyon Lake with my Daughter...

2010-09-07T08:29:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a hard story to write, and I've purposely let myself have a few days to absorb everything that happened before I tried to tell it. But here goes...

Breathe organized a trail ride at Canyon Lake to take place on a Sunday morning. I had convinced (basically mandated) that my daughter V attend with me on her horse Lola. I wanted the father-daughter bonding time, and I also wanted to "push" V into riding the horse that she had me buy her. To this point, her riding has been rare and for short rides.

The day before, V and I went on a trail ride in my neighborhood, where Lola had cantered for a short burst and sent V into a total panic. But after she recovered, she admitted it had been kind of fun. But V had never really cantered before that time, and I've been frustrated at her reluctance to even TRY to canter. Mainly because I know a rider can't expect a horse to NEVER canter, and the longer she puts it off, the bigger her freak out is going to be when the horse DOES canter. V is a very beginner rider, and doesn't always accept instruction well. She's my daughter, so I can say this, but I KNOW she has to be pushed sometimes.

Her attitude was bright on Sunday morning. We joined the riders at the trail head, and tacked up. Lola was being very good and relaxed, and V seemed relaxed as well, but with some of the nervous tension that we all have when riding with new horses. We headed out and all went well for much of the ride. Several times, Lola and V were walking SO slowly, they fell way behind, and I had to circle back and encourage her to trot.

Lola and V (in front), along with Sharon bringing up the rear

Woody, my Azteca mount, was a handful, and very much wanted to be in the front of the herd, which I could NOT allow him to do because I had to keep an eye out for V and Lola. In fact, he was being a huge pain in the rear, and I was regretting riding him in the snaffle I had chosen for the ride, because I was having a hard time rating his speed.

It was a perfect trail ride, and we were well on our way home when we came upon a nice, long, clear stretch of the trail. The front of the herd loped/trotted through the area, and I stayed back with V.

I then had the foolish notion that ended in disaster. Even though I almost NEVER lope when headed back to the trailer, I felt we were far enough away from the end of the trail ride that perhaps a lope wouldn't be out of the question. By this point, V had been trotting aggressively and seemed more comfortable with speed. I grabbed her lead rope with my right hand, kept her on my right, and told her we would go a little faster through this area. I had been ponying she and Lola at several points along the trail in an effort to encourage V to trot with me and keep up, and that had been working well, with me using Woody to keep Lola going.

We started off at a trot, and went into an easy lope. V was getting nervous, but was also smiling, so I thought I had made the correct decision to push her. Then it got ugly.

Woody accelerated, and Lola responded in kind. In a heartbeat, we were in a flat out out run. I hauled back on Woody's reins, but he had the snaffle out of his way and he was off to the races. V was hauling on Lola, but the two horses were in a competition, and they were both hard headed horses that wanted to win at all costs. We were nothing on their backs, and they had forgotten we even existed at that point. It was my worst nightmare; V was on a run away horse.

I realized at this point that the only way to stop Woody or Lola was a one-rein stop. But I had my right hand occupied with the lead rope, and I couldn't perform the maneuver. V had no idea how to do a one rein stop, and so she couldn't rate Lola down.

We were fast approaching the herd, and I hoped Woody and Lola would slow as we approached and allow me to regain control. But it quickly became apparent they intended to run through the herd and continue the race back to the end of the trail.

I started to circle Woody to the left, the only clear spot available, although it was marked by heavy grass and low brush. I figured that circling him to a stop was my only option. He did circle, and started to slow, but we were circling at a canter, and I knew this move was going to be tough for V to handle. I tried to make the circle as gradual as possible, hoping she would be able to ride through it. Lola only circled because I still had hold of the lead rope, but she was circling very wide, and the pressure for me to hold onto the lead rope was intense.

What happened next was told to me, as I was too busy with my task at hand to see it all. Apparently, the saddle started to slip off Lola as we went into that circle, and V started to slide off Lola with the saddle. At some point, she realized the situation was hopeless, and she lept off Lola, landing in the only clear spot of grass around. Lola continued on, and then started to kick at and destroy the saddle as it slipped underneath her body. At that point, I knew V was off, and the burn and pain in my hand told me I was losing flesh on my hand from my grip on that lead rope, and I released Lola and the lead rope. Lola finally ground to a halt, the saddle in pieces underneath her and the lead rope wrapped around her leg.

I can't begin to tell you the feeling in my stomach as I saw V on the ground. But I heard her starting to cry, and I knew that was a good sign. An even better one was when I saw her struggle to her feet. I jumped off Woody and handed the reins to another rider, and rushed to V, trying not to reveal the concern in my voice.

She was OK. Obviously she was shaken up, but she had no broken bones and no head injuries. Immediately, the other riders present, all female, told V that "these things happen", "oh, you should hear some of my stories about falling off a horse", "you didn't do anything wrong, it was the saddle", and so on.

I knew V was going to come off a horse sooner or later, and I knew it was going to be sooner, because her balance is bad and she hasn't been pushing herself to be a better rider. But I sure hadn't wanted it to be indirectly because of my actions. But I could NOT have asked for a better environment for V to be in when she did come off Lola. The riders were SO supportive, and not at ALL babying. In fact, after she had gotten most of her tears done with, they MADE her get up on another horse, a tall Tennessee Walker, and had her ride him to end of the trail. By the end, she was smiling and felt all the love and encouragement from the "girl power" that was infused into her.

I tied up the horses, and then left V to change into her bathing suit. Despite her fall, she wanted to "swim with the horses" as all the other riders were preparing to do.

I removed the broken saddle from Lola, tacked her up in my gear, and proceeded to ride the snot out of her back on the trail, and leading AWAY from the other horses. I wanted to kill both she and Woody, but for now, I was going to let her know that she needed to pay attention to signals. As suspected, she tested me a little bit, but she otherwise rode well, and after a few tries, was stopping so hard she jammed my spine. In other words, the situation was a difficult one, and she didn't have the rider to control her in that set of circumstances, and that's how I got us in the pickle that developed.

I changed into my swim trunks, and V and I "swam with our horses" leading them into Canyon Lake until the water was to their backs. V LOVED it. I couldn't get her out of the water. She enjoyed the entire experience, and delighted in cavorting with the other riders and their horses in such a unique treat of lounging in the water with the horses.

We finally got out of the water, and tied up the horses, letting them eat hay and dry slowly with the sun. The rest of the riders set up a picnic. V and I joined in, and were glad we had packed a healthy lunch. The stories went round and round the table, with many riders recounting their disasters and triumphs with various horses. V definitely felt she had experienced her own adventure.

We rested at home, and then V and I headed out on another trail ride that same day, and I taught V the one rein stop. She grinned wildly when she felt how quickly Lola stopped when she just used one rein rather than both. You could tell she enjoyed knowing how to use this "emergency brake".

V and Lola on a trail ride AFTER the fall...she's smiling!

Notice also the loop rein, breast collar, neoprene cinch, tight rear cinch, tie down, and bit with long shanks; I wasn't going to leave my baby defenseless again.

Since this past Sunday, V has shared her story with all her relatives and friends, and the story is getting better and more embellished with each telling. I am sorry V had to fall, but I actually feel the experience has helped her to grow by leaps and bounds, and has improved her horsemanship immensely.

As for Dad, well, you know I learned a lot, too. And I'll be scaling back on cantering on the trail, but I WILL be pushing V in the round pen; and I think she'll handle it just fine.

A Quick Ride on Woody

2010-09-02T12:00:00.000-07:00

I haven't had much time to ride this week, but I did squeeze in a ride on Woody, my approximately 17 year old Azteca gelding. For a number of rides, when I ride in the front pasture, I've been circling all my horses in the same direction around two cones, and cueing for the correct lead while doing so. The idea was to be consistent, and see if this would help the horses learn correct lead departures. I hoped to be doing figure 8's at the canter, and eventually see if I could get some flying lead changes.

I put Woody through his paces, and he IMMEDIATELY picked up the correct leads going around both cones, right one way and left the other. Not a single misstep. He knew which direction I was going to ask for, and was ANTICIPATING the lead even before I could ask for it.

I then tried a few figure 8's, but slowing to a trot between circles, and again he was consistent. That was enough for me for the day, and I eased him out to do some trail riding.

I was riding him in a German martingale, to re-train him to keep himself in a bit more collected state. I don't think I had to get in his mouth more than a half a dozen times. I used my body to do all speed transitions and stops. It was amazing. He was a bit dull in the first 10 minutes, but the less I touched him with the reins, the softer and more responsive he became. It was like he was judging me as rider, trying to decide how "on" he needed/could be, and responded appropriately. In other words, as I've described him many times, he adjusts to his rider.

He only has a few faults: his trot is rough and requires a vigorous post, he raises his head more than I'd like when he's excited, and he can get energetic when he's headed home. I can't fault him for his trot; that's just how God made him. I can control his energy headed home. And the German martingale has done well to remind him to keep his head collected with use about every third ride.

But short of that, I'm always amazed when I ride him. This was even more obvious after riding the young filly over the weekend. It's such a contrast between a horse who knows everything and one who is just learning everything.

Thank you Woodrow, for such a great ride!

A Noteworthy Ride on a Young Horse...

2010-08-31T07:46:00.000-07:00

I had occasion to go to South Texas and the ranch this past weekend. Unfortunately, I was already hauling a tractor, so I wasn't able to take any of my horses, and didn't anticipate getting any riding time. But as luck would have it, I did ride!

I went to James's ranch in Ramirez, TX. The soil there is sandy and fertile. It's good for growing grass and watermelon. He and my cousin had taken their horses to the vet to have Coggins' tests pulled, and James had managed to convince my cousin they should ride later that day. I drove over from the JAG Ranch in Benavides, TX with the friend who had accompanied me from San Antonio.

James was going to ride "Sugar", his older, grade QH mare. She's a solid mount, and usually offers no foolishness. My cousin was going to ride his red roan grade QH, aka "The Red Roan or Nacho". That horse has one heck of a smooth trot. The plan was to pony my cousin's filly, a grade QH/mustang cross about 3 years old, named "Mustang Sally". No one really wanted to mount the filly, as she hadn't been worked in about a year, and her training even up to that point hadn't been exactly solid. She'd been ridden, but when pastured a year ago, there were still a lot of issues left to be worked out.

I offered to handle the filly on the ground a bit. I made her lower her head, yield hindquarters, longe a bit, did some desensitization with the lead rope on different parts of her body, touched her all over, and generally just worked her until she licked and chewed and I felt had her attention. Now I knew I didn't have her RAPT attention, but I had more than when she was caught in the pasture 30 minutes prior. Maybe it was pride, because my cousin had been giving me grief about my blog that he teased me was self-serving. Maybe it was foolishness. But I announced that I would ride the filly.

I got a few stares. I think someone even called me crazy. But I tacked her up anyway. I wasn't going to be using a bit I would prefer to use in a young horse like her, but it was a bit with which I was familiar. I snugged up the cinch and rear strap well, lest she start bucking and throw the saddle. I half-mounted her several times, partly because I wanted her to stand still for mounting, partly because I wanted her to get used to the weight in the stirrup, and partly because she's damn near mutton-withered and I needed a good jump to mount her properly!

Finally, I was on her back. She wasn't quivering underneath me, but I could definitely feel tension. I worked on flexing her laterally from the saddle. She did very well. My cousin told me later that this was something the charro that had trained her some had worked on extensively. nice to see some of the lessons had stuck.

We headed out, James on Sugar, my cousin Frankie on Nacho, and me on Sally. Sally followed willingly, a little too willingly. It was obvious she was following them not because I wanted her to, but because SHE wanted to. This was obvious when I tried to stop her, and she resisted the bit and wanted to follow after the other two horses. I asked James and Frankie to stop for a moment, and then worked on stopping her. I knew she was stopping because the herd was stopped, but I wanted to at least cue her some to stop in case I needed a better stop down the trail. She had absolutely NO back up, I mean NONE. Pressure and cues to back up were just met with a lock down - no movement in any direction, a total "freeze". Frankie then told me that she had never learned to back up with the charro either. Hmm, this was going to be weird. I tend to really use the back up to settle a horse. That option was gone.

I did a lot of circling while the herd moving forward. That way, she would get used to turning away from the others, but then immediately get to turn back, a source of security for her. But each circle was bigger, and her turn AWAY from the herd a little longer.

We rode to a back pasture, where James had the idea we would work the cow herd back through some corrals to another pasture. Ordinarily, with three horses, I'd say that should be a reasonable task. But I knew I was going to be virtually worthless with Sally. As we walked, she wandered like a drunken sailor stumbling home, and I was constantly tweaking her to get her to walk straight. She also had a habit of wanting to walk next to the other horses, in such close proximity that she was TOUCHING and rubbed up on the other horse. Again, Frankie told me that this was one of her habits. Well, not with me! That felt absolutely dangerous to be letting her do that, so I started to anticipate her movement, and tipped her head away as soon as she started with this behavior. She still wanted to sneak her rear end over to touch the horses, however, so I had to put some leg pressure on her to get her hind end over. I was pretty nervous applying leg pressure to her - I didn't know if she'd blow up! But I came to realize that her problem is not one of "blowing up" but rather the "freeze". She is virtually dead to anything but extreme cues. When she feels pressured, she just stops dead in her tracks and won't move.

So on we rode to find the cow herd. James then informed me that Sally had never really seen cows, been in the same pasture with cows, and certainly never worked cows. Hoo boy, this was going to be interesting. Sugar had seen cows plenty. The roan had been a roping and sorting cow horse. But Sally was green.

We spotted the herd, and started to slowly move in. But necessarily, this meant that we had to split up some. As the other horses got further away, Sally's anxiety level increased. I could feel it. At one point, the other horses were out of sight, and Sally and I approached one particular cow that was reluctant to move. She started to freak out. She whinnied as loud as she could for the other horses. Her head was straight up in the air. She wanted to know where the other horses were and was calling for them to join her. The roan answered back from the brush just as loudly, only adding to Sally's anxiety and pretty much convincing her that she was indeed about to die.

Well, at this point, it was obvious that what little connection I had with Sally was gone. I was NOT in control and she was going to do whatever the herd dictated. I tried to move her forward, turn her, anything, but she was locked down and "frozen". "This is when the buck is going to happen," I thought. What to do?

I dismounted, and started to longe Sally. I had left a lead rope and halter attached in case I needed to do this, so I was prepared. It took some effort, but I got her unfrozen and started her moving in circles around me. About the same time, Frankie rode over with the red roan. He didn't say anything, but I suspect he was nervous with the red roan calling out so forcefully to the filly. I doubt my longeing had much effect, but the filly did settle down. But I think that was a result of her being close to the roan again, more than my efforts to get her to connect with me.

We rode on, but I was content to just keep Sally moving along the general direction of the cow herd, and with the roan close by. She obviously didn't have the confidence or number of rides needed to do much more than just walk a bit.

We caught up to James, who had abandoned his efforts at moving the cow herd. There was no way he was going to be able to do that solo and without riders on the wings of the herd, and Sally and the roan had proven they were not going to do much to help this ride.

We settled in and rode on together for a few more miles. Sally did start walking straighter, and gained some confidence. I rode her ahead of the others at a trot at times. She kept looking back, but I kept her moving and anticipated the "freeze" better. I was trying to build up her confidence. I think it worked some.

The same number of riders that left, came back, and that's the mark of a good ride any day. The horses got a work out, and I got my adrenalin fix for the day, for sure.

At the end of the ride, Frankie complimented me on the size of my "guts" (another term was used) for even attempting to ride Sally.

Sally has a long way to go, but like a lot of young horses, she has promise. Whether she'll reach her potential remains to be seen. But it was great to be riding, chasing after cows, down a long trail, with friends, as the sun faded and set, in the glory of South Texas.

A Nighttime Trailride...

2010-08-23T20:13:00.000-07:00

With all the focus on riding Lola into better condition, and keeping Woody (my Azteca) ridden and tuned up, my paso fino Vaquero has been languishing back at the barn. But last ride out I used my new Myler snaffle bit with the mecate rein set-up, and he rode reasonably well. He was high strung and over anxious, but I was impressed how much better he rode in the snaffle versus the Myler bit with shanks I usually use with him. With the snaffle, he was much more calm and less prone to over-react when I asked for simple movements.

I got home late, but I talked James into riding a few trails with me and Vaquero. He mounted Frosty. I reasoned that it was a full moon and already up, so we would have that to light the way home.

Frosty and James

Right away, I had to deal with some extra energy from Vaquero as I tried to position him to allow me to open a gate. He's never been good at relaxing by a gate. But with some patience, we succeeded. And then we were off. I was hoping to ride hard and fast, but James had reservations with Frosty, his 2 year old colt, because Frosty's stop is not very good. As it was getting dark fast, I agreed to ride slow, and set a goal to use this ride to keep Vaquero as calm as possible.

It was a great success. Vaquero gave me his flat walk, and responded well when I cued him to relax. The snaffle bit is NOT a fluke. This is the second good ride in a row with this set-up. What I think is that Vaquero has a lot of brio (read try) and engaging his mouth just gets him more fired up than he needs to be. He's already ready to do anything I ask, so to ask harder just gets him OVER excited.

In fact, I doubt he needs a bit at all. I think he would ride just fine bit-less. The snaffle gives ME the security I want, and it's easier to ride him because it's like the power steering is OFF and he's not so touchy.

James even commented after the ride, "I think that's your trail horse". And the truth is, he is a great trail horse when he is able to relax. Maybe I've found the key with this bit.

By the way, riding with the full moon was awesome. I was very proud of both horses for not spooking at all the shadows and deer that kept popping up on the trail like ghosts. I think I was more spooked than they were several times...

Trail Ride with Breathe....

2010-08-22T16:29:00.001-07:00

Breathe and Smokey

Woody and me

I had an awesome trail ride with Breathe today. I hauled over to Canyon Lake and we had a nice 7 mile trail ride along the shoreline, on the Old Hancock Trail. It was hot, but enjoyable, and capped off with a swim with the horses. I can't show you pics of that because I was scantily clad in my black boxers, but it was the best end to a trail ride I've ever had. The horses genuinely seemed to enjoy getting in the water and cooling off. At one point, I rode Woody bareback while he swam underneath me. It was quite a feeling. Neither the people nor the horses were anxious to get out of the water.

Breathe's stable owner joined us at one end of the trail head. She breeds for Aztecas, and she looked at Woody and agrees that he is probably Azteca.

Definitely going to be heading out to Canyon Lake again soon.

A ride on Frosty...

2010-08-16T20:28:00.000-07:00

Frosty is my friend James's horse. He's a grade quarter horse mix. His sire was a mustang, and his dam a grade QH. He's all of 2 years old. James has done a lot of work with him since he was a foal, and he brought him to the ranch this Spring with the express goal of breaking him. Well, it went just great, and James has been riding him rather regularly. I have stayed off Frosty's back...mostly because I don't want to interfere with the bond James has with Frosty, but also because I was a little nervous about getting on such a young horse!

Lately, James has been really struggling with getting Frosty to make a circle. I mean ANY kind of circle at the trot or canter. Frosty goes all over the place, and will swing wide and James can't turn him. He'll have his head bent around and Frosty will still be going straight through the turn, until he runs into a fence. There's been a lot of swearing going on when this happens.

Well, I've just about bit my tongue off to keep from saying much while I watch these episodes. But I've been studying how James rides more intently lately, to try to spot the problem.

Today, my nephew and I rode with James and Frosty in the front pasture. The usual spectacle began to unfold, followed by frustration on James's part.

I got brave, and asked James if I could ride Frosty. I had been wanting to anyway, and here was my chance to see what I could do. Now the pressure was on to see if I knew a damn thing about anything.

I asked them to position themselves in the usual spot where we sit mounted while a rider works the cones. I wanted all the same distractions that Frosty usually deals with. Frosty and I argued a little bit about standing still for mounting, and then I was up in the stirrups. We did some walking, and I was careful to use direct reining with the snaffle in which he was being ridden. I worked my way around the cone, gradually building up energy to the trot. My circles with him were pretty darn good, better than anything James had done with him up to that point, in my opinion. James yelled, "He's OK at the trot. It's at the canter that he falls apart!" Well, I thought that was baloney, because I'd seen how poorly he circles at the trot too, but I kicked him up to the canter. Now Frosty is VERY left lead dominant, and cannot sustain the right lead for very long at all, and I was doing a clockwise circle asking for the right lead; but he did get into the canter and the circle was just as good. I stopped Frosty, and handed the reins to James.

What had I done differently than James to get these results?

When I watched James ride Frosty, I noticed a lot of outside rein pressure during turns. That means Frosty had a pull on the inside AND outside rein. That's not a very clear signal, especially to a young horse. That's going to get a lot of sloppy turns and build confusion and a lack of confidence in this young horse. When I rode him, I was careful to use only INSIDE rein pressure and keep the outside rein quiet and out of his way. I also did a lot of slight pressure and RELEASE as soon as he tipped his nose for me. It didn't take long before he knew that the fastest way to get the release was to give to the bit and tip his nose. Already, he was feeling more confident and sure of himself.

Frosty tends to turn wide. Well, his motor was running but his body wasn't positioned properly. He needed a little help to know how to turn with a rider mounted. So when his turn got a little wide, I used my inside leg to re-direct his hindquarters over so we could then use that motor to complete the turn.

So the combination of more clear reining signals and using my legs to move his hindquarters over kept us turning a pretty circle around the cone. I also tried to focus on keeping my shoulders level. A few times I dipped my inside shoulder, and he cut the circle short. That was MY fault, not his. Shoulders level, and we were fine again.

We circled several times at a fast trot and short bursts of controlled canter. (Remember, he can't sustain a right lead canter yet). It was getting late, and I had to get my nephew inside, so I rode away from James and left him trying to canter circles in the dark.

Later, at supper, James stated some observations he had made that evening. He stated that as a rider, he is unbalanced. That is to say, he has an easier time riding when his right leg is the inside leg, than when his left leg is the inside leg and he has to apply pressure to Frosty. And, he had underestimated how much Frosty needs leg pressure to move his hindquarters over and make a better circle. Remember, this horse is only on about his 30th ride. He's still figuring out this riding stuff. He NEEDS guidance to make a good circle. Also, he admitted that he may be using more outside rein pressure than he should. That is to say, he needs to focus on his reining cues to make things more clear to Frosty.

Honestly, James never circled all that well on his other horse, Bullseye, either. I think what we've really discovered are holes in James's riding abilities.

Now James has taught Frosty a lot of great things, and way they round pen together is amazing. He also loads well, and has a solid foundation in MANY aspects. But eventually, the best ground trained horse has to be mounted, and if the rider's skills are not up to snuff, the great ground horse will not show up when ridden.

I really like these moments: when you finally realize something is amiss, you identify the problem, and start a course of action to correct course. I think James had one of those moments today, and I think Frosty will soon be riding better.

What's that saying? Oh yeah...there are no problem horses, only problem riders.

Family and Horses...

2010-08-15T19:36:00.001-07:00

Will and Lola, me and Woody

My niece and nephew are in town and staying with me for the week, and I have my kids for the next week as well, so this evening was the start of some fun at my place.

My nephew is trying to be a cowboy, and my mother helped him today by buying him some jeans, a hat, and some boots. I was more than willing to comply by getting him on a horse. But first, he watered the horses and helped muck stalls, a little. I outfitted him on Lola and we did some riding, with me ponying Lola on Woody. After a few pointers and several safe laps, and within the confines of the front pasture, I turned him loose. We walked, and he did a really good job with Lola. He just might be a natural. No fear and he was not upset when he had to bring her around to keep her from walking to the gate that she thinks is the way out of work.

I parked my nephew and Lola in a corner of the pasture and worked Woody. Just nice circles around the cones. He picked up both leads well, and only needed correction from counter-cantering one time. He worked up a nice sweat, and it was about 15 steady minutes of canter/trot. His stop and back up were much sharper. This is my second ride in a row with him without an intervening beginner on his back, and he's already sharpening up.

Hopefully, there will be a lot more riding this week...

New Tack

2010-08-14T20:13:00.000-07:00

I was able to stop by one of my favorite stores in the area, D&D. For the first time in about 10 visits, they were well stocked, and I made some purchases.

I bought a new Myler bit. Myler bits are my favorite, and seem to be easily accepted by my horses. I was impressed that the trainer Breathe and I met recently used a snaffle, and this one in particular.

It's a Myler "C" Sleeve Ring MB 09, Size 5.

Description as follows: Myler Loose Ring Bit with C Sleeve. The C Sleeve bits are loose ring bits that slide through a sleeve rather than directly through the mouthpiece.

Function: Sleeves help keep the bit from pulling through or pinching the sides of the mouth. Without rein pressure, loose rings with sleeves move freely, allowing the horse some play with the bit. With backward rein pressure, the loose ring with sleeves applies the same amount of pressure to the mouth. However, with outward and backward rein pressure the ring locks into position on the sleeve. The mouthpiece is then fixed. This offers a more direct signal to the mouth as well as keeps the ring from flipping to the front. 4" ring

Now I don't know for sure that the trainer was using a Myler bit, but I do know that he was using this C sleeve design. I wanted to use it with mecate reins and slobber straps, for a really classic rig that would be my "training" rig. I used it today on Lola, and this is what it looked like on her.

I think it looked really sharp on her, and it was very functional. I really took advantage of the "get down rope" to do some teaching from the ground when she wasn't getting the side-pass. This is definitely my new favorite trail rig.

Tuning up Woody

2010-08-12T21:36:00.000-07:00

Woody is my guest horse. The horse I can put a rank beginner on, and know they'll be safe. But he's also the most advanced horse, if you know how to ask him for his skills.

But beginners get on him, pull the reins across his neck like they're riding a horse out of a western movie, and fail to ask him to be honest. After several rides, he starts to get undone. And then I have to get on him and remind him of his skills.

We started with circles. I swear, and I'm not exaggerating, I can canter a circle around a cone on this horse and you'd swear it was a perfect circle. Go ahead, use a string and his hoof prints will mark a perfect radius from that cone. All done in a soothing, easy to ride, slow canter. Most that ride him can't get him to canter, because he won't canter if he doesn't feel you balanced on him. But with me, he gets into the canter right away.

His trot is awful. I mean, rough, a definite post of trot required. And when I ride him often, we don't trot. We go to canter from the walk. But with him out of tune with me, we had to bump through the trot to get to canter until he warmed up.

His stop was sloppy. So we worked on that a lot, and did a lot of backing up. Probably a few hundred yards worth if I added it all up. That's the first thing to go on him, and the last thing to come back. But it's so important, I really work him doing that.

He was reining well, so no problems there. Nice and soft everywhere. Yielded front and rear well. Side passed incredibly well.

He was popping his head up, one of his weaknesses. Every head lift was met with bit pressure and a release when he lowered his head. Beginners always let him get away with that.

Then the walk back to the barn...oh brother. I hate a horse that gets too energetic headed back to the barn. It took us half an hour to travel the last 100 yards to the barn, I kid you not. I circled him to a stop, backed him up repeatedly, and just worked him unless he was walking calmly, head down and flexed at poll, back to barn. After a lot of work, and several deep sighs from both of us, we finally managed to get back to the barn in a relaxed manner. Mind you, he's never out of control, and beginners don't even notice that he's high-stepping back to the barn, but I don't like it because I know it doesn't represent his best behavior. When I first got him, I worked for about 2 months to try to keep him from "jigging" on the way back to the barn. His previous owner thought it was pretty how he raised his legs so high and "pranced" back to the barn. But I knew it was just extra energy and an improper mind-set that was the issue.

Woody's a great old horse, but like a lot of them, he can get undone with the wrong kind of riding and if he isn't kept honest. Woody's faults are: loses his stop, picks his head up too high at times, and can be too energetic going back to the barn. But he tunes up quickly, and I hope to get him back into the shape I know he's capable of, with a few more rides.

Trail ride...

2010-08-02T13:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I was able to get in a trail ride at my former stables. I was joined by C and Breathe. I rode vaquero, my paso fino, C rode Lola, and Breathe rode Woody. I spent most of the afternoon cleaning my tack and making adjustments so as to be able to have everything needed to get all 3 horses ridden in the bits and reins I wanted to use. Before I knew it, I was late to the 6pm start time of the trail ride.

I hate running late, especially with horses. Just when you need to rush and get all the horses loaded perfectly, you can be sure one or all of them is going to be a problem.

Everybody loaded well, this time, and we arrived about 10 minutes late. I hurried to get everyone the tack they needed. Immediately, I knew Vaquero was going to be a problem. My crazy paso fino hadn't been worked in about 2 weeks, and he had LOTS of excess energy. There were new horses everywhere to get his attention. Also, Breathe grabbed Woody to tack him up and moved him out of sight of Vaquero, and this was VERY worrying for Vaquero, as Woody is his barn buddy and herd leader. I spent a few minutes longeing Vaquero, but I knew I didn't have his complete attention and that this ride was going to be spooky. But there was no more time for me to work him, as the call went out to mount up and move out.

About 100 yards into the trail ride, Vaquero's legs were moving like pistons, furiously pumping up and down, a sure sign he is WAY too revved up. I asked him for a side-pass to go around a tree, and he blew up, paso fino style. He gave two little bucks. I brought his head around to my boot on the right,and then to the left, a few times. The I gave him a few seconds to gather himself and calm down. And then we proceeded to continue on down the trail. I continued to ask for the side pass, and now he yielded willingly.

The rest of the trail ride went well. Actually, he did very well. I repeatedly asked for the side pass, both sides, as I maneuvered him around tree branches, bushes, etc. He performed admirably.

When I trail ride, I challenge myself to look well ahead on the trail and identify obstacles. I then try to position my horse with reins and legs to best negotiate the obstacle. I challenge myself to NOT have to lower my head or crouch over the horse's neck if there is ANY way to stay well mounted and avoid tree branches. I like my horses to be ready to move laterally if indicated. I like to imagine that my horse has "4 wheel steering" and ride them accordingly. I think it's a good way to improve my horsemanship.

Vaquero has a lot of "brio", that term that paso fino lovers surely made up to describe this breed's fiery little personality. Sometimes, I hate it, and wish I could dial it down to about a 2. But this horse will do anything I ask him to do. He's jumped fallen trees, logs, creeks, anything. I think he'd be the perfect trail horse if he could relax a bit more. He's vastly improved with me since I purchased him over a year ago, but I'd still rate his brio level 9/10 some times. But he has really improved my horsemanship, and he was a joy to ride, me mounted and moving fast with just a jiggle, no bouncing trot, side passing through openings in the branches just wide enough for my big head and hat.

Pretty cool stuff.

We interrupt this story for a live update...

2010-07-27T19:51:00.001-07:00

A great sunset. You can just make out James on Frosty at the far end of the pasture.

While the pitiful story of a boy hopelessly lost in the ways of horses is fascinating, we need to break away for a moment to more current events.

I got a great ride in on Lola this evening. While we rode in the front pasture, thunder was softly rolling all around us, and thunderclouds were slowly dissipating as the sun's heat started to wane.

I continued with my plan: walking and trotting to warm up. She didn't stumble once. I then approached the cones. I've been very consistently circling the cones in the same way every ride, the same cone clockwise and the other counter-clockwise. We start at a walk, build energy to a trot for a few circles, and then I cue GENTLY for the lead departure I want, while increasing my energy JUST enough to get her to break into the canter. It's been working like a champ.

We did both cones, and hence both directions, about 4-5 times, with about 3-4 circles at the canter each time. She is taking the correct lead just about every time and she is much stronger in the right (direction) lead than she was just several rides ago. She has consistently given me a nice slow canter for a few rides now, so I feel I can safely say, this isn't just a fluke.

Her stop has improved dramatically, and I almost went over the top of her today because I wasn't braced for such a good stop. I was sloppy, and led the stop with my reins instead of my seat and legs, and I damn near cracked my spine and was over her neck before I knew it. I was better after that miscue.

I then got a little ambitious with her, and instead of stopping after circling one of the cones, I led her out of the circle, brought my energy down to get her in a trot, and then led her to the next cone where we would circle in the trot, but then quickly (but still trying for smooth and slow speed) go to the canter. This is all in anticipation of doing figure 8 work with her in the future. Also, I'm building up to eventually asking for a flying lead change when we go from one cone to the next. But that's several rides away. She still needs conditioning and to build strength.

She seems much more relaxed, and may be more affectionate than I thought. She seems to enjoy pats on her neck and soft words. I almost thought I had her completely when she came and watered while I was filling her water bucket, looking at me cautiously but with less apprehension than her usual; but then she later gave me her hind end when I wanted to reach through her stall panel and touch her face. So she's not done playing hard to get just yet. But I sense there's a crack in the veneer....

A story of a boy who wanted a horse....(Part 2)

2010-07-26T17:35:00.000-07:00

So here I was with a horse that I wanted to ride, but was woefully ill prepared for anything to do with horses. I didn't know how to properly care for a horse. I didn't know how best to feed them. I knew nothing about vet or hoof care. I mean, I was in the dark. As far as my parents were concerned, they had bought the horse and the rest was up to me. They didn't know anything about horses either.

As it was obvious to everyone in the stables where my horse was boarded that I knew nothing, people began to shower me with advice. Even the greenest of riders knew more than I did, so I got good advice AND bad advice, and I had no way of filtering any of it. I barely knew how to saddle my horse. Somehow, I muddled through, and started riding in the arena that was located on the stable grounds. But Tuffy Danger didn't ride straight. He liked going sideways, and it was a little unnerving. And he just got worse and worse, and started running me into the arena rails, fences, gates, you name it. He would sidepass into things to brush me off, and I was getting pretty beat up in the process. I found out later that side passing was what had unnnerved his previous owner, and she had given him up because he was too dangerous for her to ride.

"Ride him hard. Put some spurs into him. Ride him easy, don't use spurs." Every one had advice and none of it made sense to me. I'd try something, expecting it to work in 15 minutes, and then get frustrated when it didn't. I learned to longe my horse, with the direction of others. But I didn't know what I was doing, and most of my goal was to round pen my horse into a lather with the hopes that he would be too tired to run me into things when I mounted him. But it didn't work.

Pretty soon things went from bad to worse. My horse started to offer little rears in protest when I was riding him. That usually got me off him pretty fast. So then he learned to do bigger rears. I nerved up and rode him anyway, but at this point he was rearing to nearly vertical at the slightest ride! Someone told my mother, and that same someone convinced her that was dangerous, so she agreed to send the horse to a trainer.

So Tuffy Danger went to the trainer, a cowboy trainer. There, he was ridden hard by some pretty tough guys. After about 45 days, they invited me out to ride my new, improved horse. As soon as I saw him, I knew he'd had it rough. He was scarred all over from the hard use of spurs. He had fresh scars barely covered with dried blood, and old scars he must have received shortly after his arrival. I mounted him, and he did seem different. He was very wired but had a great neck rein and would trot and canter effortlessly. But he sure didn't seem calm or at ease. I rode him with the cowboy trainer, and we rode hard through the South Texas brush, and Tuffy Danger jumped cactus and plowed through anything I accidentally steered him into. He didn't offer to rear. My only instructions on the way home were to ride him hard and use the spurs.

It didn't take long until Tuffy Danger was rearing again, even more viciously than before, and it was just a matter of time before he was going to fall over completely and send the saddle horn through my chest.

I admitted defeat, and my father and me loaded him up and took him to the auction. My father had an "I told you" look on his face the whole time. I felt defeated, but I pretty much hated that horse by that time, and when he was rushed into the stock yards, I didn't care if he was sold to ride or for meat. I was just glad to be rid of him.

My first foray into horse ownership had lasted about a year. I had a few good rides on Tuffy Danger, but too few to mention. Most were on the ranch, working a few cows and with some wide open spaces where he couldn't run me into things. My first horse, a 7 year old registered Quarter Horse purchased for $750 dollars in 1985, was gone, and so was my dream of owning a horse and being a horseman. Whatever horsemanship skills I had inherited from my Grandpa Chuy must have been diluted, because I was a failure at this horse thing.

I rode horses on occasion over the years after selling Tuffy Danger, but I was never easy around them. I maybe rode 3 or 4 times over the next 21 years, but thoughts of horse ownership never entered my mind. I figured I had my chance, and horses were for people of different stock.

I graduated high school, and went to Austin for college, and then entered medical school and residency, so horses were nothing but a bad memory for me for a long time. But the longing to ride horses in a good way must have stayed way back in my brain, because events would bring me back to them.

A story of a boy who wanted a horse....(Part 1)

2010-07-26T08:51:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about my first horse experience. I think some of the successes and failures I've had recently have caused me to reflect. It's been a long journey.

When I was about 15 years old, I got the horse bug. I don't remember exactly how or why it started, but it was a raging fever when I did contract the disease. I'd been exposed to horses in one form or another all my life. When I was a kid, my Grandpa Chuy, would rent and sometimes own, various Shetland ponies for me and the other grand-kids to ride. I've got a picture of me with him on top of one of his quarter horses when I was still in diapers. He always had horses, and over the years, I've heard stories about his horse training abilities and exploits. I can't speak first hand about any of this, because he died when I was 9 years old.

But I do remember one Shetland Pony, Milky Way. And I remember being led on him one Easter when I was about 7, with my uncle leading, and Milky Way started bucking. I wasn't afraid and I was staying on fine, but my Uncle Frank was yelling "jump off, jump off!" so I did. I dusted myself off and that was that. I don't remember crying or being more than mildly upset. The adults inspected the saddle and concluded he has a sticker under the saddle that had caused him to buck. With the insight I have today, I doubt that. I think he was just a pastured pony who didn't get much work until we were around and he was showing a little barn sour behavior when he was being led away from his herd. But the explanation was more than adequate for all the grand-kids, and of course, after that we were hyper-vigilant about asking about stickers before ever getting on him again.

I continued to ride horses off and on during my adolescence, and always enjoyed it. So sometime around age 15, I started to hit my mother up for a horse. I knew nothing about horses, other than that I liked to ride them. My father was a city slicker, so he was of no help. But I pestered my mother until she started to ask around. A guy my mother knew told her about a horse that was for sale. It was a 7 year old gelding, registered quarter horse named "Tuffy Danger". He was being sold by a woman that just didn't have the time to ride him. Was I interested?

I told my mother "yes" and we headed down to South Texas to view the horse at a friend's place. I jumped on the horse and rode with the daughter of the man's ranch we were visiting. I had no fear at that age, and I was happy to walk, trot, canter: anything the horse wanted to do. I did notice that he seemed to ride sideways some times, but I didn't know what that meant and didn't care. He was a horse and he could be mine. We bought him on the spot for $750 dollars, not a small sum for a horse in circa 1985. I don't remember how we got him home, but before I knew it, he was being stabled at a place about 5 miles from my house in Corpus Christi, TX, and I had been outfitted with a new saddle, tack, and spurs. I was a horse owner.

I was living the dream...What could go wrong?

Evening ride on Lola..Best yet!

2010-07-25T20:04:00.000-07:00

I know I was pushing my luck a bit to try a ride on Lola again this evening. She had done well on the morning trail ride, but I just felt she could do more and we could keep working on her conditioning.

I brought her to the front pasture and warmed her up with walks and trots. Just a quick stumble in the beginning, but none after warm up. I trotted her around the cones and brought the energy up very slowly to get her into the canter. First attempt was 2-3 beats of counter-canter while going to the right, so I brought her back down to the trot and tried again. Success! This time she took the correct lead and she was smooth. What's more, she wasn't running, but was doing the nicest little slow canter. I kept her at it for about 4-5 wide circles, mindful of her stifle and paying attention in case she seemed to be having difficulty. I stopped her, and she gave me a nice stop and then a nice back up.

We went to the next cone and repeated the exercise, but going to the left, her strong side. She went into the correct lead easily and a nice SLOW canter. BUT, she did have trouble sustaining it, and stumbled twice. I took it easy on her, and let her walk it off around the pasture. She seemed OK, so I tried the right circle again. She took it up correctly and stayed with the SLOW canter. No stumbles in this direction, and another 5 or so wide circles.

I kept repeating the exercise, first one way and then the other, and there were no more stumbles and no more incorrect lead departures, and her canter stayed slow and controlled throughout.

Let me explain, I am ALL ABOUT THE CANTER. That's what gives me the greatest joy when riding, and I really like the slow controlled canter. To me, it tells me a lot about the horse's mindset, willingness, and it's the speed I like to use when I need to safely, but quickly, get something done. Who doesn't like the canter, right?

Well, this was the slow canter I've been trying to get for a while from Lola. I didn't enjoy her previous darty, charging canter with no control. This controlled canter is what I like to get from all my horses, and it was getting frustrating that I wasn't getting it from Lola. This day made up for a lot.

I concentrated on being a particularly good rider today. I was using split reins, and Lola seems to work better with them versus the loop rein. Or maybe I was just having a good day with them. I rode with my hands VERY independent from my seat so as to stay "out of the way" of her movements. I also concentrated on "staying out of my stirrups". I wanted to feel like my seat and legs were keeping me very centered and balanced and that there was virtually no pressure from my feet pressing on the stirrups. I wanted it to feel like I was riding bareback. Maybe that helped, because she was very balanced circling in the canter.

After the pasture work, I rode her a ways from the house and worked on going up and down some small hills. All told, I rode her about 30 minutes, but it was a very focused, successful 30 minutes.

I quit on a good note, and she seemed pleased. She even let me rub her head while she was in her stall, something she doesn't let me do too often. I felt we had a real connection out there today. It was a great ride.

Ride with Frank and Tony...

2010-07-25T14:20:00.000-07:00

Tony on Woody, Frank on Lola, me on Vaquero

My cousin is in town, and I had a chance to ride with him today. He's the cousin that alerted me to Lola when she became available on Craig's List. He had yet to ride Lola, and had missed riding the trails in my neighborhood by circumstance of weather on his previous visits. He brought his son Tony, so after a nice evening at the Cibolo rodeo nearby the evening prior, we were primed for a Sunday morning trail ride.

Frank rode Lola, and his son Tony rode Woody. I mounted Vaquero. After a warm-up in the front pasture, we hit the trails. We did all three, and by the last mile, Tony was released from the lead rope and allowed to ride solo.

Tony and his Dad mounted and ready to start the trail ride.

At the end of the trail ride, Frank trotted and cantered Lola. I am happy to report her trot and canter for him was easy and controlled. She only stumbled a couple of times during our warm-up session, and not at all late in the trail ride or after, during trotting and cantering.

Frank was very pleased with how she rode, and really liked her height and conformation.

As the morning had warmed up to a hot day, we jumped in the pool after the ride to cool off and spent the rest of the afternoon making BBQ and talking.

Good times.

Victoria rides Lola...

2010-07-22T19:11:00.000-07:00

James on Frosty...

It was a nice evening for a little pasture work and a trail ride afterwards. Victoria, my oldest, consented to ride, and so it was a 3 horse adventure. Victoria on Lola, myself on Woody, and James on his 2 year old gelding Frosty.

We started with some simple walking and trotting in the front pasture, in both directions, to get them warmed up. Victoria was all over the saddle, and she needs to ride more to keep her balance and muscles up. Lola stumbled maybe twice, and only in the beginning.

James and I did some relaxed work around the cones, at the trot and then at Woody's slow canter. It really helped Frosty to be following behind, as it rated his speed considerably and made him focus on his circle. We did this in both directions, and James noted that the left lead dominant Frosty was much smoother in the left circle.

I remember when I first got Woody. His previous owner hadn't worried too much about his balance, and he was terrifically left lead dominant as well. By concentrating on cantering on both leads, he became and remains, a very balanced horse in either lead.

Lola and Victoria stayed on the sidelines during our drilling. Victoria hasn't been riding enough for me to be comfortable letting her join in this exercise. But I think I'm going to be encouraging her more strongly this weekend. It's good for her and it really helps me get the horses exercised if she rides.

We finished up our exercises and then hit the trails. Frosty was much more relaxed this ride. Everyone rode well, and we finished with the sun setting and the horses in a light sweat. Honestly, we could have worked them a lot harder, but this was a nice change of pace. And my daughter rode, so that was all I needed for this ride to be memorable.

Victoria on Lola...

Lola's conditioning continues...

2010-07-20T19:21:00.000-07:00

Another good ride on Lola, on a very sticky, muggy night. She stumbled about 2-3 times at the start of the ride, but then perked right up. I did a lot of extended trotting. She has a wonderful trot for a quarter-horse, and it requires very little effort to post.

I tried her a little at a straight canter, with the idea that I wouldn't turn her very hard. It was a disaster. But not because of her injury, I don't think. See, she takes off and doesn't want to do anything but haul ass in the canter. I brought in her chin with brute force, to see if that would rate her, and it only achieved minimal success. I gave her her head, and she wanted to just tear around the front pasture. Well, that wasn't going to work, as she was bouncing me all over creation and I felt as if she had little control.

I brought her to a halt and just sat on her thinking. I used that time to call out for James, to let him know when his 2 year old gelding was in the correct lead. "Yes", I'd yell if he was in the correct lead for the circle he was trying to get his inexperienced horse to take. But more often I was yelling "No", to let James know he was in the incorrect lead. His horse is very left lead dominant, and he's trying to balance him. Not much success thus far.

The pause let me see James try to manhandle his gelding and not get very far. After he finally got frustrated, he walked his horse over to me and we sat and talked. "This isn't working for either of us, is it?" I asked. He agreed. I said "Hold my horse", and with that I went into the house and brought out two orange training cones I had bought several weeks back and forgotten to use. "Let's set these out and play follow the leader", I said.

Well, I took Lola and guided her into a big circle around the first cone. Not too tight, so as not to further injure her. I just let her trot her smooth trot in as perfect a WIDE circle I could make with her. She seemed to get the idea, and kept circling at a fast trot. When I had done this about 3 times, we moved to the other cone and circled the opposite direction. At one point, without my asking for it, she broke into the nicest little smooth canter on the correct lead, and she repeated this when we went back to the other cone in the other lead. Now, these were big circles, and I hadn't asked for the canter, but I suspected she would find the canter a lot easier than the fast trot she was trying to maintain, and I guess she agreed, because she did it effortlessly. The whole time, James was following me with Frosty, and when we stopped our horses, he reported a similar positive experience on his horse. And the energy during the exercise was palpably more relaxed for horse and riders. Except for when we first started, and Frosty got close to one of the cones and it spooked him, so he bucked two bucks until James let him calm down.

This is definitely an exercise worth repeating, and it will allow me to let Lola tell ME how much her stifles will take without pushing her too hard.

After the exercise, we embarked on a little trail ride. It was hilarious watching Frosty get spooked at every little thing on the trail. The black line that marks the edge of the roadway was like a chasm. The darker surface of freshly paved asphalt was surely a deep pool of water. The horse silhouette that held the numbers of a street address was the smallest, full figured horse he'd ever seen, and he kept waiting for it to jump out at him. James handled him well, and everyone survived the ride.

I think Lola can work through this "fixed stifle" if I can keep devoting time to riding her. Of course, I've got Woody and Vaquero that are languishing now. I may have to shift to them for the rest of the week. But I am really enjoying Lola's trot and fast walk. We'll see...

The rides with Lola just keep getting better...

2010-07-19T19:17:00.001-07:00

I tried to stick with my plan to keep conditioning Lola, so despite being tired and post-call, I got on the riding boots and headed out to catch Lola.

Remember, Lola hasn't always been the easiest horse to catch. But I'd been reading the book Breathe lent me, "Whole Heart, Whole Horse" by Mark Rashid, and I entered the pasture with a little different mind set. I went after catching Lola with absolutely no hurry to my work. I just hung out a bit and approached her slowly. She barely moved. I didn't rush to halter her, but stroked her and let her just be next to me for a while before I haltered her. It was easy as falling off a log. Victoria, my oldest and the one who SHOULD be riding Lola, broke into applause at the easy catch.

The kids mounted their bicycles and I mounted Lola and we headed off to the park. I kept Lola to a walk/trot. She stumbled softly two times, maybe three, at the start, and never stumbled again. We did a few trails, horses and bicycles together, and worked up another light sweat by the end. We spent more time on collection at the trot, and she is holding her flex at the poll with less complaint.

Well, I guess it's working. The "locked stifle" she was having trouble with seems to be responding to more frequent riding. I didn't lope her very much and I think it'll be some time before I work her in the canter significantly, but she is definitely showing improvement in many aspects.

Better ride on Lola...

2010-07-18T19:43:00.001-07:00

I had the farrier out on Friday, July 16th. He found no evidence of hoof abscess. I had looked her over carefully for the three days preceding his visit, so it was gratifying to know my exam was consistent with his.

He did suggest a possible diagnosis for Lola's issue, and that will be detailed below. I have placed in bold the symptoms that I think fit Lola's case.

I decided to ride Lola today, as she was showing no signs of lameness while in the field. In fact, I had been watching her trot and canter freely in the pasture for 2 days without a hint of trouble. Upon the first 50 steps of walking out, she was dragging her left toe and stumbling. I kept walking her, and she started to smooth out. After about 5-10 minutes of walking, her clumsiness was gone and she was using her fast walk, a wonderful walk that kept Woody in a slow trot to keep up.

I proceeded to ride her for about 3.5 miles on all three trails in my neighborhood, up and down inclines, at various speeds. Mostly, we stayed in a fast walk, but we did some extended trotting and some bursts of canter, with circling in both directions and in both leads. She never seemed to pull up gimpy. In fact, it was one of the best rides I've ever had on her. I worked on collecting her during the periods of prolonged trotting. She finished with a nice sweat, but not lathered. The temperature dropped as thunderstorms ringed my neighborhood, but it never rained. A rainbow was present throughout the ride. A perfect evening, really.

Upward Pateller Fixation
Intermittent upward patellar fixation is a condition whereby the horse's pelvic limb temporarily "locks" in extension. As a result, there is a delay in flexion of the limb. The delay in flexion can range from milli-seconds to over several minutes. A short delay in flexion may manifest only as a subtle pelvic limb asymmetry or lameness; severely affected horses (with a long delay in flexion) may be unable to flex the affected limb without assistance.

What is the "Patella"? The horse's stifle joint is analogous to the human knee. Just like humans, horses have a patella, or "knee cap", which slides along the distal aspect of the femur (thigh bone) during flexion of the joint. The patella slides within a groove (called the trochlear groove) and serves as a fulcrum for the extensor muscles and their tendons as they course over the front of the stifle (or knee) joint. The patella is attached proximally to the quadriceps and biceps femoris muscles and distally to the tibia. In humans, the patella is attached to the tibia by one distal patellar ligament. Horses have 3 distal patellar ligaments: the medial patellar ligament, the middle patellar ligament, and the lateral patellar ligament.

How does the horse 'lock' the pelvic limb? Horses have the ability to lock (or fixate) the pelvic limb in extension. This is possible due to the unique anatomy associated with the horse's stifle joint. The proximal aspect of the medial femoral trochlea is shaped similar to a hook or ski jump. By placing the space between the medial and middle patellar ligaments over this hook, horses can "lock" their pelvic limbs in extension. Once locked, minimal effort is required to maintain limb extension. A similar locking apparatus in the thoracic limbs allows horses to sleep while standing. Therefore, patellar fixation while standing is a normal process in the horse.

What is 'intermittent upward patellar fixation'? Although patellar fixation is normal in the standing horse, it can produce pelvic limb dysfunction if it occurs during exercise. Inadvertent locking of the patella over the medial femoral trochlea prevents normal flexion of the affected limb(s). Consequently, pelvic limb asymmetry and lameness frequently become evident.

What causes upward patellar fixation? There are 3 primary causes of upward patellar fixation in the horse:

a.. Lack of fitness: Lack of quadriceps and/or biceps femoris muscle tone results in an inability to quickly pull the patella up and off of the medial femoral trochlea.

b.. Straight or upright pelvic limb conformation: This places the medial femoral trochlea further distad in closer proximity with the patella, facilitating patellar fixation.

c.. Excessive distal patellar ligament length: This places the patella proximad in closer proximity with the medial femoral trochlea, where it can inadvertently "catch" or "lock"
It should be noted that the factors which cause upward patellar fixation are often interrelated. For example, an unfit horse will generally have increased laxity (and therefore increased length) of the distal patellar ligaments. Furthermore, if unfitness is secondary to another disease process (such as neurologic disease), intermittent upward fixation may also occur secondarily. Therefore, it is important to assess the horse as a whole prior to determining the cause for upward patellar fixation.

What are the clinical signs? Horses with intermittent upward patellar fixation will exhibit clinical signs during their attempt to flex the pelvic limb from an extended position. In acute severe cases, the pelvic limb may stay locked in extension. The horse may not be able to flex the stifle and tarsus without assistance. In some instances, the condition may temporarily resolve only to recur after taking a few steps. These signs are quite obvious and diagnosis is relatively simple if the condition is severe. Most of the time, however, there is only a "catching" of the patella as it slides up and over the hook and the limb does not truly lock in extension. In this situation, there may only be a mild pelvic limb asymmetry or lameness. This type of lameness can be easily confused with other problems and therefore may present a dilemma in regard to accurate diagnosis. Following are common clinical signs associated with mild to moderate forms of intermittent upward patellar fixation:

a.. Non-weightbearing pelvic limb lameness
a.. This may be distinguished from tarsal (hock) soreness which is usually weightbearing in nature
b.. The horse will frequently drag the toe of the affected limb(s) during exercise
a.. Visible wearing of the dorsal aspect of the toe/shoe may be apparent.
c.. The foot of the affected limb(s) will have a low-arc flight pattern
d.. The horse will usually exhibit a shortened cranial phase to the stride
b.. Resistance in the canter
a.. The horse will resist the canter, particularly if circled toward the more affected limb
b.. Resistance may be most noticeable during the transition between the trot and canter, when the horse is forced to extend the pelvic limb for a prolonged period
c.. Many horses will toss their head, rear, or stop when asked to canter. This may be due to their "anticipation" of impending upward patellar fixation.
d.. The horse would rather trot than canter (which is harder for the normal horse)
c.. Consistent lead changes or cantering on the wrong lead
a.. The horse avoids prolonged pelvic limb extension with the affected limb. This is particularly apparent when cantering in a circle towards the affected limb.
d.. The canter is very rough or "bouncy"
a.. This occurs as a result of consistent delay in pelvic limb flexion from the extended position
e.. Swelling, heat, and/or pain may be associated with one or both stifle joints
a.. Upward patellar fixation causes patellar instability which in turn may result in femoropatellar synovitis
f.. The horse drags his hind toes during exercise
g.. Resistance and/or difficulty when walking up and down hills, or when backing up
a.. These situations force the horse to extend the pelvic limb for a prolonged period
b.. Rather then fully extend the pelvic limb(s), the horse may "crouch" while walking
c.. Rather than flex the pelvic limb(s) normally, horses will often swing their limbs to the outside
d.. This may cause the lameness to be confused with neurologic disease (such as EPM or stringhalt)
h.. Lameness is most severe when the horse is first taken out of the stall
a.. Many horses will improve as the workout progresses
i.. Lameness becomes more obvious following an extended period of stall rest
a.. Loss of muscle and patellar ligament tone exacerbate the upward patellar fixation
b.. The horse does not improve (and may worsen) as a result of taking time off
j.. The horse does not respond to anti-inflammatory (e.g. Phenylbutazone) therapy
a.. Intermittent upward patellar fixation is a mechanical problem and is not inflammatory-mediated
As with many cases of pelvic limb lameness, secondary abnormalities such as thoracolumbar ebaxial (back) and proximal thoracic suspensory ligament soreness are also present. These are generally detected during the passive lameness evaluation and are suggestive of chronic pelvic limb asymmetry/ lameness.

How is upward patellar fixation diagnosed? Clinical signs are characteristic and, if the limb is locked in extension (i.e. the case is severe), diagnosis is simple. As previously mentioned, however, most cases are mild and diagnosis may be more difficult. A detailed history and careful clinical evaluation are essential parts of a proper workup. One helpful diagnostic aid involves placing the horse in one or more situations where prolonged pelvic limb extension is normally required. Such situations include walking up and down hills, the trot-to-canter transition, and backing up. When confronted with these situations, the affected horse will either 1) demonstrate upward patellar fixation by temporarily locking the pelvic limb, or 2) cheat by switching leads, swinging the limbs to the outside, avoiding pelvic limb extension, etc.

Many times, a slight hitch or "catch" is visible as the pelvic limb begins to flex from an extended position. This "catch" is most easily detected by visualizing the point of the hock as the horse picks the limb up to advance it cranially. Infrequently, an audible "snap" or popping sound is also evident during exercise (particularly walking).

In many instances, upward patellar fixation can be produced in affected horses by manually forcing the patella upward and outward. The examiner may actually be able to keep the pelvic limb locked in extension using minimal effort.

Since the problem is usually secondary to conformation and/or level of fitness, it is almost always bilateral. However, affected horses historically exhibit clinical signs in one pelvic limb. It is not until the more affected limb is successfully treated that a problem in the contralateral limb is manifested.

How is upward patellar fixation treated? Currently, there are 5 forms of treatment for intermittent upward patellar fixation:

a.. Exercise: Lack of fitness results in decreased thigh muscle and patellar ligament tone. With decreased supporting muscle and ligament tone, it becomes easier for the patella to lock on the femur and harder for it to replace within the trochlear groove. In subtle cases of upward patellar fixation where conformation is relatively good, increased exercise alone may result in resolution of the problem.
We frequently ask the client to grade the level of their horse's current level of fitness on a scale of 1 to 10 (1=very unfit; 10=extremely fit). We suggest achieving a fitness level of at least 7-8 (if possible) prior to pursuing other forms of treatment. This will rule out unfitness as a major contributor to the problem as well as increase the effect of other therapy.

b.. Corrective Shoeing: Since fixation of the patella occurs when the pelvic limb is extended, prolonging the extension phase of the stride can make "unlocking" more difficult. Alternatively, shortening the amount of time the pelvic limb spends in extension allows the horse to unlock his/her patella before the distal patellar ligaments become excessively tight. Since the conformation of the distal pelvic limb and/or the toe length is intimately related to pelvic limb breakover, the farrier can frequently alleviate the problem via corrective trimming/shoeing. Rolling and/or rockering the toe of the shoe, applying a full (egg-) bar shoe, and/or the use of wedged pads (when needed) are commonly used techniques. In many cases, we are able to help the pelvic limbs break over before intermittent upward patellar fixation occurs.

c.. Hormonal Therapy: The administration of estrogen has shown to prove benefical for some horses exhibiting intermittent upward patellar fixation. The presence of estrogen within the body of the horse may increase tension of various supporting ligaments. These include the collateral, suspensory, cruciate, and distal patellar ligaments. Increasing distal patellar ligament tension helps to relocate the patellar further distad, thereby making upward patellar fixation more difficult. This in turn may alleviate clinical signs.
d.. It should be noted that estrogen is also a powerful behavior modificator in the horse. It is often used for stallions and geldings that are excessively difficult to handle, aggressive towards people or other horses, or overly anxious at shows and other events. Estrogen is very effective at reducing anxiety and resistance as well as improving overall behavior in these horses. Treatment usually consists of 2 injections of estrogen (25mg) in the muscle twice weekly for 4 consecutive weeks, then as needed therafter.

Administration of estrogen to mares usually causes them to exhibit clinical signs of estrus (heat). Since this change in behavior is generally undesirable, we do not recommend its use in mares.

e.. Intraligamentous Infusion of Counterirritant: This form of therapy is usually referred to as "blistering". Blistering involves the inject of an irritative substance into soft tissue(s) in an attempt to create an inflammatory reaction. The irritative substance usually consists of iodine 2% in an almond oil base. This substance can elicit an inflammatory response for up to 30 days depending on the amount used and the location of injection. It is important to remember that fibrosis and scar tissue formation within normal soft tissues will occur as a result of severe inflammation. As you know, scar tissue does not function like normal soft tissue. Therefore, blistering in certain areas may inhibit proper function of associated soft tissue. It is for this reason that The Atlanta Equine Clinic typically does not institute blistering as typical form of treatment for soft tissue problems.

However, in the case of intermittent upward patellar fixation, we gain a biomechanical advantage by replacing normal tissue with scar tissue. The infusion of counterirritant within and around the medial and middle patellar ligaments results in the elicitation of an intense inflammatory reaction by the horse's body. With inflammation, fibrosis and scarring of the patellar ligaments occur. During the scarring process, soft tissues will contract (shorten). As the patellar ligaments shorten, the patella is pulled up and over the hook of the medial femoral trochlea and into its normal position within the trochlear groove. At this point, it becomes more difficult for the horse to lock the patella and easier to flex the pelvic limb from an extended position. In our hands, this from of treatment has been extremely effective in a vast majority of cases involving intermittent upward patellar fixation.

f.. Medial Patellar Desmotomy: The medial patella ligament is one of the key structures (along with the patella and middle patellar ligament) that is required to lock the patella on the femur. Since the problem represents the horse's inability to quickly disengage the patella from the medial femoral trochlea, surgical resection of the medial patellar ligament results in complete resolution of the problem. Once the medial patellar ligament is resected, upward patellar fixation becomes impossible and the clinical signs associated with this condition disappear. Consequently, this has become a very popular form of treatment for horses with intermittent upward patellar fixation.
It is extremely important to note, however, that the medial patellar ligament also performs another function: stabilization of the patella within the trochlear groove of the femur. Without tension from the medial patellar ligament, the patella becomes unstable within the femoropatellar joint. Femoropatellar synovitis and frequently osteoarthritis result. Since the stifle is high-motion in nature, chronic inflammation within this joint poses a significant concern in regard to future performance soundness. Persistent femoropatellar joint inflammation typically needs to be addressed on a continual basis and often requires considerable maintenance therapy. It is for this reason that The Atlanta Equine Clinic views this form of treatment inappropriate except for the most severe of cases that have proven refractory to the other forms of therapy.

Lola is lame...

2010-07-14T06:17:00.000-07:00

I rode Lola, the newest addition to my remuda, yesterday. During a previous ride about 2-3 weeks ago, she was stumbling and dragging a rear leg. I gave her some bute and kept her to a walk to complete a trail ride we had embarked on. I put her away and let her rest, hoping things would heal themselves.

Yesterday, she was dragging her left rear leg IMMEDIATELY, even at a walk. I worked her fairly hard, and she kept stumbling and was just terrible through all her gaits, choppy and rough. She was pawing at the ground with her left rear leg and holding it in unusual positions while tied up after the ride. She is OBVIOUSLY hurt. I gave her some bute after the ride, and I'm likely going to visit the vet in a few days. I'm not sure what the problem is, but I'm praying it'll be a quick fix and involve low cost. But you never know with this stuff.

Below are the photos of how she was holding the leg.

New Round Pen...

2010-05-17T08:40:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I purchased a round pen. And after having it up for all of 2 days, I don't know why I waited so long to buy the damn thing.

I postponed the purchase because I wanted the right round pen. You know, the right metal material, the right dimensions and height, etc. And the price of my dream round pen ranged from 5K on up. So I delayed the purchase, figuring I'd save the money and buy the round pen I really wanted.

Enter my Craigslist searching cousin, who emailed me about a dealer who was offering a 50ft round pen, complete with gate, for $640. I called the dealer, but that price was for 5ft high panels, made of their "economy" metal. But could they build me panels for a 60ft round pen, all panels 10' long and 6' high, with a 6' entry gate, and 14GA metal? Yes, but it was going to cost me. But nowhere near the 5K estimate I had received months ago. Fine, it's a deal. So Saturday I headed to HWY 16 and Loop 1604 and met the truck.

As soon as I could enlist some labor to help me, I had those panels on the ground and the pen was assembled. Thanks to my 13 year old daughter for helping me lift panels and place them. It took us about 3 hours, but it was all in place over the red sand that had been prepared there by the previous owner.

I quickly threw Woody in the round pen and worked him out. Yes, this was going to be cool! I am eternally grateful to my neighbors who have always let me use their round pen, but this round pen is on my land and easy to get to. It also lets me work one horse in one round pen while another horse could be worked by another horseman in the other round pen. No more lines for the round pen. And my round pen area has some light near it, so I can get use out of it at dusk/night.

Well, Sunday after hospital rounds (I worked an extra weekend to pay for the darn round pen), I worked Vaquero and Lola in the round pen, BECAUSE I COULD! The proximity to my stable makes it so easy to grab a horse to work.

Vaquero and I worked on speed transitions, over and over again. Walk, trot, canter...then back to walk from canter...then canter from walk, then trot...back to walk again. I worked on really controlling his speed enough that I could sustain any gait, including and especially the walk, for as long as I wanted. What a difference from a year ago, when I couldn't get him to walk for even a single step!

Vaquero was well soaked in the humidity after we finished. But I really felt a great connection and some real learning HAS occurred between us. He is such a joy to work in the round pen, but you have to be very subtle in your body language, because if you just THINK about the next gait, he responds. Don't believe me? Come try him some time. I'm serious, he's that freaking sensitive. No whipping the ground with your lunge whip required, and you'd better not fall asleep while working him, or he'll be changing direction before you've even realized that you drifted in front of his driveline by 1 inch. I've heard this from other paso fino owners, so I know it's just part of the breed. But after a year of working with him, I can really appreciate it now.

Lola was next. 5 minutes later, and she was in the round pen. Same drill of frequent speed transitions, with emphasis on the walk. She, like a lot of other horses, hasn't really been taught that it's OK to just walk in the round pen, and so we spent some time letting her do just that: a nice focused walk a few laps around.

I worked her up into a nice sweat and then invited her in to me using my body language. She just stopped and stared, but made no step towards me. So I whipped her up and moved her around again! Later, I re-invited her. Just a stop and stare, with maybe a shift in weight suggesting she MIGHT join up with me. Not good enough, so I sent her moving around the pen again. I did this several more times, finally really moving her butt out, and invited her in again. This time, she dropped her head, licked and chewed, and moved all the way towards the center of the round pen. She had truly joined up with me for the first time since I bought her. It had taken some time, and a lot of work on her part, but it felt like my best connection with her to date. She is cantering easily now, and her transitions are much faster.

I worked with both horses on yielding hind end from the ground, and I plan to do this more, eventually moving their front end and working in a side-pass from the ground for both.

The round pen has made a world of difference. The proximity to my stable will let me work horses more quickly, since I won't have to walk so far to change horses, and the footing in my round pen is ideal. I'll be adding a bit more sand here in the future, but it's very usable as is.

Lola is improving!

2010-04-23T18:52:00.000-07:00

Lola has been making steady progress. We really haven't had a step backward yet, and every day I've worked with her, she has gotten a little bit better (knock on wood).

She is a big pain in the rear to catch, however. Emma, my trusty mutt, helped me herd her into a back paddock, and from there she gave in to being caught easily. But she will not be easily caught on my back 2 acres. I resorted to giving her a treat after I caught her today, and hopefully, that will help me catch her the next time. The frustrating part is that all the other horses were habituated to coming in when called. But Lola is infecting the herd with her reluctance to be caught, and bringing in the herd is proving to be a challenge.

Once caught, we headed to the round pen. We did some light longeing and some round pen work, concentrating on speed transitions and maintaining gait. After some work, she was walking, trotting, and cantering, up and down through her speed transitions, easily and with little energy from me. What a difference! Just a few sessions ago, I was working like crazy to get her canter and maintain even her trot for one complete turn around the round pen. Now she is cued into me, and we are communicating more effectively. I made sure to be able to walk her around the round pen for a few revolutions.

Time for the trail, and I was looking forward to her first trail ride with me. She was just great, walking and trotting EXACTLY when I asked for it. I avoided the canter on the trail this time, just to ensure a successful trip, but she will be asked to canter on the trail next time. Her only reluctance was in leaving the barn initially, and she kept looking back. But once we were a good 100 yards from the barn, she settled in.

She's not butter yet, but at the pace she's learning, we should be right on track to finishing her out in a few months. Still lots to do, but I'm very encouraged by her steady progress.

Lola is catching on...

2010-04-21T19:20:00.000-07:00

Monday, I rode Woody. Just enjoyed some smooth cantering and the enjoyable ride of a super-broke horse.

Today, it was back on Lola. I did some ground work, longeing her and keeping pressure on her to get her to lope more easily. She did much better, and was going into the lope with less energy required. I then moved to the round pen and did some more. I then mounted her, and the lope was much easier. Success!

I still need a lot more round pen time with her, as she is not consistently turning in on both sides. And she's still stiff and needs flexing. But she's loping more freely, and that will be something to build on.

Lola update, and rain...

2010-04-15T20:37:00.000-07:00

Rain, rain, and rain. I am looking forward to sunshine and clear skies. But at least the rain has forced me to slow down and do some ground work with Lola.

Working with Lola is reminding me just how well trained my other horses are. Lola is very stiff, and it's going to be back to basics for her, working on flexing her neck and being more willing to back up. She's improving daily, but it needs a lot of repetition. I also worked on backing her up straight from the ground, as she has a tendency to move her hips over to the right when backing up. She's a smart girl, and has been catching on fast, without getting rattled.

I remembered that it took me a few months to get the excellent ground manners and flexion that I have in my other two mounts, Woody and Vaquero. Thank goodness I have this blog to review, and remind myself where I started with those geldings.

Lola is very predictable, in that whatever she can or can't do from the ground is EXACTLY what she can or can't do under saddle. Thus, I feel confident that my time spent doing ground work will really pay off.

The rain is a blessing in more ways than one. If the weather was better, I'd be blasting off on Lola, riding her too much and ignoring her holes. Thank you God, for sending me a slow down cue.

First ride with Lola...

2010-04-11T18:26:00.000-07:00

My "Hall of Fame" horses have always given me great first rides. Spirit (rest in peace) and Woody both gave me great first impressions: they moved out easily, were well broke, and didn't offer anything stupid.

I was really looking forward to my first ride on "Lola", Victoria's first horse. Overall, her ride was excellent, and she has a great chance of earning hall of fame status. What follows is a very critical review of her performance.

She entered the round pen without trepidation. We worked on flexing exercises, and it's apparent she hasn't had much work in the way of softening. She did not yield her head and flex her neck, but rather took the pressure on her face to mean she should turn her whole body. I could tell she was trying to look for the release, but not QUITE getting it. BUT, she never panicked, she never tried to get crazy, even though she was feeling pressure.

I then worked on sending her around the round pen. She walked easily, and went into a trot with just a little increased energy. Getting her to canter was another issue. I had to REALLY chase her and apply pressure to get her into a canter. And she wouldn't sustain the canter. A half trip around the round pen, and she would slip back to the trot. I attribute some of this reluctance to canter to being a little out of shape, and to having been ridden by kids. But this is an area that will need work, as I do expect my horses to canter easily. BUT, again she offered not a single buck, kick, or ANY sign of aggression towards me, even when I REALLY pressured her.

She looked in to me for cues, and I was able to change direction in her easily. Her "driveline" is a bit loose, however, so turning her was a little unpredictable. I think all this will improve with more round pen time.

It was time to mount. I sure appreciated her 14.3 HH height (confirmed with a good measure today); it made mounting a snap. She moved off a little sooner than I would like, and before I could get myself set in the saddle. But that's easily fixed with some practice.

We moved out at a walk, and it was a great walk. I could feel the spring in her rear legs, and she was really absorbing the movement, leaving me smooth in the saddle. I clucked her up to a trot, but I had to give her a little squeeze with my legs as an additional cue. Her slow trot is a little rough, but her fast trot covers some ground and I could definitely sit it.

Getting her to canter was another story, and just repeated what I experienced from the ground. I had to greatly increase my energy to get her into a canter and to maintain the canter. We worked in both directions, and she took the appropriate lead. Not knowing this horse, I was wondering how she might do with a little more pressure. She hadn't done anything stupid so far, so I figured I'd try. I gave her one in the flank with my quirt, and she was off to the races! After that, if I wanted the canter, I just had to show her the quirt.

Her canter is too fast and uncollected at present, but I feel confident that I can bring it down a notch and collect her a bit more. As long as the horse doesn't do anything stupid, I can work with 'em. And Lola just needs some refinement. The nice temperament is there.

After getting her into a good sweat, the party began. The neighbors came by to meet her. Victoria and Sofia took turns riding and being led on her. And my friend Winter and her daughter Sierra, came by to meet her. Winter took a turn on her and agreed with my assessment. What was amazing was that with all the different people around, she just took it all in stride. She seems very taken with children, and looks to them and lowers her head to receive affection from kids. Victoria was very happy with the calm walk she took on her.

Lola is going to have to be versatile to be a horse I will ride and that my daughters will ride, and I'm happy to report that she is "as advertised".

I think Lola is a diamond in the rough...

Victoria and Lola...

2010-04-10T14:50:00.000-07:00

What a day! I'll try to do the day justice with a good literary description but, truly, you had to be there...

Yesterday evening, we prepared the truck and trailer for the journey to get Lola, a grade QH mare that is to be Victoria's first horse. We filled a traveling container with water, prepared the cooler for snacks, cleaned and lubed every hinge on the trailer, and gathered the necessary tack. Emma, the ever faithful mutt, was in everything, getting underfoot left and right. Until, where was Emma? We were convinced we were ready and wanted to head in for an early night and some rest, but could not locate Emma. She was nowhere, after being everywhere all evening. We circled the neighborhood, calling her name. We stopped people out for an evening stroll with our worried queries, but to no avail. We gave up well after dark, and retired for the evening convinced she had run off, distracted after deer or other dogs, and we would never see her again. My youngest, Sofia, was nearly inconsolable, crying for her Emma.

The alarm came quickly, sounding at 0600. I had awoken numerous times during the night thinking I was hearing Emma scratching at the door or barking for attention, but it was only wishful dreaming. I awoke Victoria, and after our personal preparations, I told her we would feed the horses together and then hit the road. She opened the tack room in the barn to get the feed, and out bounced Emma! She must have been doing her best to stay underfoot at the previous evening's feeding, and had been shut in the tack room. The tack room was a mess after being subjected to Emma's chewing overnight: feed bags were ripped open, objects were scattered everywhere; but Emma was OK! Victoria and I let out HUGE sighs of relief. Now we could focus on getting Lola without the worry for Emma that had plagued us all night and had threatened to rob our excitement in getting a new horse!

We hit the road, our moods lighter than air and with Emma safely tucked in her kennel after several hugs. We had 263 miles to cover. Let me explain: we were going to Uvalde to take possession of Lola, then drive back to Hondo and head due north through Bandera to Kerrville, where I would round on 6 patients, and then back to Bulverde to end the journey. We were on a mission!

The exchange for Lola went well, and I had Victoria prepare a bill of sale enroute and handle the transfer of money. The family selling Lola was very sweet, and it was a tender moment for them to say goodbye to their mare (known to them as "Liberty").
I exchanged their halter for ours, and asked Lola to load in our trailer. She hopped right in without a hitch, and she was in and loaded just like that! Yes! This trip was going EXACTLY as planned.

We started our trek back to Hondo, with Victoria's new horse in tow. We turned north and admired the beautiful wildflowers. We drove through Bandera, "Cowboy capitol of the World", and Victoria and I marveled at the charm and the number of motorcycles. We were just outside of Bandera on the north side, when I spied a sign that offered trucks an alternate route. Why did we need an alternate route north? We were here to enjoy the country and we were in a F-250 with a stock horse trailer. We weren't driving an 18 wheeler after all.

Has anyone driven HWY 16 between Bandera and Kerrville? It is the curviest, tiniest, most undulating stretch of road I have ever driven on outside of Mexico's mountain passes. Just when you thought it couldn't get tougher to negotiate, it got scarier. We took some turns at 5 MPH. The trailer was going right, then left, up then down, and I could only imagine that if Lola could get trailer-sick, she was there. I was feeling green myself, but my fear and focus driving this rig with my daughter and her new horse was taking all of my attention.

I joked with Victoria, "If we get a flat tire here, we are in BIG trouble". At last, the road straightened and we were through. Kerrville was in sight. We parked in the hospital parking lot and I collapsed in my seat from the strain. We were right on schedule.

While I donned my white coat, Victoria started to prepare her "picnic" in the back of the truck. She would stay with Lola while I did my rounds. But before we gave Lola some water and made sure she had survived the most serpentine road in Texas, Victoria said, "Dad, did you feel the trailer was lop-sided?" The right rear trailer tire was flat, the sidewall exploded but not yet in tatters. The heat from "snake road" must have been too much for the tire, and it had probably blown in the last few miles. No matter. I needed to do rounds and then look forward to a trailer tire change. I tried to put on my best face for Victoria, to show her how to laugh at adversity and tough luck, but inside I was dreading a hot, sticky tire change knowing that not every tire change goes well, and I was going to have to do this with a horse in the trailer.

I did my rounds, all patients mostly stable, but I wasn't overly chatty with the nursing staff. I wanted to get home with Lola and Victoria.

With Victoria's help, I did the tire change in 17 minutes (I like to time myself with tire changes). I had taken every precaution the evening before, and verified the pressure of the spare and I had all the equipment necessary to make things easier. Victoria remarked, "That wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be." I hope she learned something, and I hope she doesn't think they all go so well; the right tools and preparation and practice makes hard things look easy. Lola was awesome the entire time, and endured all the noise and grunts from my exertions without an issue. In fact, the entire trip, she didn't paw in the trailer ONCE.

After a lunch on the run, we headed home without any more issues. Lola unloaded calmly from the trailer and we allowed her to take in her surroundings. Victoria introduced her to the boys, my geldings, and they seemed as impressed with her looks as we were when we first met her.

It was an adventure that I hope Victoria will look back on fondly, and it delivered my oldest daughter her first horse, her first business transaction, a trip on new roads, a lesson in adversity, and culminated in a peaceful walk leading her new horse...

Good day for solo rides...

2010-04-03T17:42:00.000-07:00

Started the day by getting up early and evaluating a possible horse purchase. It's a registered Spotted Saddle Horse. Beautiful tobiano paint markings. Rode OK, but purchase negotiations are ongoing. More later if successful.

Great day for a ride, clear skies and about 82 degrees. I went to the pasture and settled on riding the first horse I caught. Woody consented after a little evasiveness. We saddled up and I jumped on him "cold back". We walked and trotted right on out. No fuss or complaints from him. After he was a little warmed up, I used every open piece on the trail to canter him. As usual, he offered no complaints, and he responded to my cues to go directly into the canter from a walk or even a dead stop. I avoid trotting because of my back, and because I can on him. It's fun to go from stopped cold to a canter without a walking/trotting/bumpy start. It's 0-60 and then lift off!

We worked on cantering on each lead, left and right. Then we put in one trail in my neighborhood. Great fun.

I headed back to my front pasture, but stayed in saddle. I rode over to Vaquero and threw a halter and lead rope on him, and proceeded to "pony" Vaquero. I was thinking that by keeping Vaquero slightly behind Woody in some long circles and trips around the front pasture, it would simulate that Vaquero was actually DRIVING Woody, and might give him some confidence. Woody is top gelding, and Vaquero needs some confidence and to know he can trail ride alone. Similarly, Woody could stand to be driven around a little, since it rarely/never happens, and Woody can be a little bossy with me. It was also a great test of my horsemanship, since riding at a trot and canter while ponying another horse can really test your skill to hold it all together: speed control, your horses reins in one hand and a lead rope/tugging horse in the other. It felt great!

Armed with that confidence in both Vaquero and myself, it was time to hit the trail solo with Vaquero. We headed out; only he didn't want to go. He side passed and kept turning his head to see Woody. This was ridiculous. I spun him him hard for a circle or two, then let him relax. He needed to be worried about me, not leaving Woody. But I couldn't do too much, or then he could get terrified to leave with me and be convinced he was unsafe to leave Woody. I pushed him out again, and again he started a little dance. NO! I spun him hard the other way; and I mean I reached down and grabbed the rein on one side damn near his bit and brought his head around until he was spinning and I had full control. I was NOT going to let him buck or get out of this. But I was careful to make moving out easy and I gave him breaks to just relax with a loose rein. He let out a big sigh during the relax portion of our exercise, and I could feel him say, "Damn, I really thought I was going to get out of this one, but this guy is determined."

We headed out again, and despite a few look backs with longing and despair, there was no more foolishness. The further we got from the ranch, the more he looked forward. There were other horses to get his attention, and various other distractions. That, and his inbred to desire to move out, kept his feet moving and the distance from the ranch growing. I tried to use that move out desire to my advantage.

We met other riders on their horses taking advantage of the great weather. So after a while, I felt him relax and we enjoyed a nice brisk walk and a smooth paso corto for much of the ride. I actually felt him start to enjoy himself. In fact, I think he rode more smoothly during this solo ride than he has in quite a while. He got sweaty, but not the ridiculous sweaty he can get when he's nervous or anxious. This was an honest ride kind of sweat. We did two trails, and headed home. He picked up the pace, but was controllable headed home. I think I heard him call out to Woody, waiting indifferently in the pasture for his return, "I made it! I'm in one piece! Can you believe it?".

I turned him out with Woody, and both horses will enjoy the night air under the starts tonight in the front pasture. I will too, with my kids and some steaks I'm throwing on the grill as soon as I stop typing. Did I mention the kids had their first swim of 2010 in the pool while I was riding? It took me 2 weeks, but the pool is in swimming shape, but way too frigid for anything but pool crazy kids desperate for a swim...Enjoy the evening.

Fiesta Concepcion Trail Ride...

2009-10-05T18:25:00.000-07:00

What a weekend! Vaquero and I rode in the Fiesta Concepcion Trail ride, traveling from Realitos, TX to Concepcion, TX, a distance of about 15 miles. It was a total blast, and a great time was had by all. I have stories and adventures to last me until next year for sure.

I guess I was really in a mood to ride, because after we did the 15 miles, we trailered to my brother's ranch in South Texas out side of Benavides, TX, and rode some more! Winter and Adam joined me, and we did about 3.5 miles on the ranch, with some fast trotting and loping thrown in for good measure.

Then, the next morning, I did about 3.5 miles riding to the front gate of the ranch to let Winter and Adam out to the FM road. I just couldn't get enough riding this weekend.

All told, I think I rode about 22 miles this weekend, all on Vaquero. He looks visibly thinner, and I'm going to give him some R&R this week, and concentrate on Woody.

I'm looking for some endurance rides, because I think I like long rides...

Great ride on Vaquero...

2009-08-25T20:35:00.000-07:00

After two terrible rides on Vaquero, I was getting very frustrated with my fire-breathing paso fino. I admit, I had been losing my cool with him the last few times, and our rides had been a disaster. But I sought advice from the good folks at americanpasofinos.com, and set about adjusting my attitude.

I worked him on the ground yesterday, and we just focused on little movements, and just relaxing with each other. We did some deep breathing with each other (seriously) and just tried to be pleasant with one another.

Today, I did much the same, but I went on a trial ride. But before going anywhere, I just sat on him and rewarded him for relaxing and just standing in one spot. For about 10 minutes, we just stood there until he stopped quivering and we reached a state of zen like tranquility (seriously).

We then went out on the trail, and he was uncharacteristically calm. Or was it me? Even James, riding with me, commented on how calm we both were.

We had a great ride, and I enjoyed his silky smooth gait. We stopped several times and refocused our energy to that zen like place, before we would tackle a section of the trail.

It was awesome. Best trail ride on Vaquero in months.

Yes, I know. It was me. I just needed to calm myself, find my center, and share that peace with my slightly neurotic horse so he could perform at his best. When he is "on", he is the best ride I have. I just want to get that ride from him consistently.

Damn, I'm really tired of that expression "there are no problem horses, only problem riders". It's always true!

Want to see some video of me and Vaquero? Go to youtube.com and search "1234vaquero".

Woody Reborn...

2009-08-16T19:16:00.001-07:00

After the debacle with Vaquero at ranch sorting at the Cibolo livery, I decided to give me and Vaquero a break from our relationship, and see other horses.

Specifically, I wanted to lope some circles, and I have been missing that on Vaquero. Since Vaquero is a paso fino and a gaited horse, loping circles isn't his strong suit.

The last two days, I hopped on Woody. I used my usual bit, and one with which I am intimately familiar, and is easier than the bit I usually have beginners use when they ride Woody. We went back to the basics. We worked on lead departures on the correct lead, forehand and hindquarter transitions, side passing, and backing up. He was rusty yesterday, but today he was ON. He was getting his leads on cue, and his forehand transitions were brisk and quick. I concentrated on unloading his front end with good body position, and it made all the difference. You see, with the QH, I have more things I can work on and do, and I get to be a more active rider. With the paso fino, I sit more passively, because being active in the saddle sets him off because he's so sensitive. And with the paso, the emphasis is on smooth, not really athletic activities.

Woody's stop in just two days is MUCH better. He damn near jammed my back on one of his stops today. So in two rides, we went from a drifting kind of stop, to jamming my spine. I just persisted in working his back up, and being very deliberate in asking for the stop with my body BEFORE I pulled on the reins, and it made a big difference. I also have been riding him with a little more bit pressure, something I picked up from riding the paso, and it seemed to make him more responsive, I think because he is already "on the bit" even before I ask for the stop. He'll never be a western pleasure horse, so riding on a completely loose rein may not have been working for him.

It was awesome. I was opening my gates from Woody's back (he was doing all the work for me, no struggles), loping big circles, and running through the front pasture. I was in the front pasture, running him strong for long stretches, when one of my neighbors walked by. She is someone I'd never met, but I'd seen her horses from the trail. She stopped and we talked for a bit, and she marveled at how Woody would just run and run, and how even after just stopping, he didn't seem short of breath. That's my Woody.

It was quite a thrill today. One of those days when you know exactly why you love riding, and makes up for those days when you wonder if it's all worth it. It is DEFINITELY worth it!

Ranch sorting at Cibolo...

2009-08-14T21:41:00.000-07:00

I had been trying to find time to attend the ranch sorting practice at Cibolo livery for some time now. It's the closest thing to team penning around, and they stopped offering team penning at Cibolo some time back. The problem is that the ranch sorting practice is only held once a month. That's a tall order with my schedule.

I loaded up the horses and kids, and headed to the stables. Christine came along and was a huge help in handling the horses.

They started with a jackpot, which was basically ranch sorting for money for the teams that really knew what they were doing. I passed, of course, but I watched closely to see what the "pros" were doing. I made some small talk with the other riders, and made some new friends. There were some very impressive horses and riders in the jackpot round.

The practice session opened immediately after, and I gave it a whirl on Vaquero. I though he did pretty well for his first time out, and I looked forward to some more runs.

I fed my kids and then jumped back in the action. Only everyone had pretty much paired up by then, and I was struggling to find a partner. After my oldest daughter, Victoria, declined to try it, Christine agreed to give it a whirl on Woody. Wow! This was going to be interesting, two novices trying to ranch sort!

I don't know who was more nervous. As we waited in line for our turn, we discussed strategy. As if we needed to! This was just about getting some experience.

We headed into the round pens, and they announced "ride when ready". After encouraging Christine that the announcement meant she should get started, we were off. Well, we managed to get a few (two or so) calves sorted, and many more that shouldn't have been, but we survived the 90 seconds. Vaquero performed poorly, and was barely containable. His extra energy was not helpful in this event, and I found myself getting very frustrated with him. But Chrsitine was hooked! She wanted another round.

We waited our turn again, and hit it for our second effort. Christine and Woody did better, but Vaquero was a total disaster. He had no clue as to what we were doing, and his energy was excessive for the event. but we had fun.

A few observations after trying this event: Vaquero is ill suited for ranch sorting. It's not that he's not "cowy" or quick enough. He has plenty of skill in those areas. It's that he can't stay put, and he has to move FORWARD, and this is an event where you're required to "hold" the cattle, and that often means staying put or just side-passing or just yielding hindquarters but staying in place. He just can't do any of that and NOT move forward. And once he moves forward, we are out of position.

This event is not something I'll be doing often. It's not offered enough and my schedule won't allow it. But it's apparent I'm going to need a good QH to do some of the cattle events. I'll try to make a few play-days with Vaquero, but I suspect he won't do well there either. And I miss loping, and Vaquero doesn't do that well.

I rode Woody a bit in the arena while we were there, but his trot was torture for my back, and I kept him in a lope. I was very envious of al the QH riders there with some beautiful looking QH's that OBVIOUSLY had smooth trots and slow lopes.

I need a smooth trotting, good looking QH. It's that simple. It's time to start saving pennies. But it was one heck of an experience, and I'll be back.

Clicker training with Vaquero...

2009-08-12T09:05:00.000-07:00

I went for a casual trail ride with Vaquero yesterday. I started by working on his clicker training in the barn while tacking up. He was asked to touch an inanimate object (a feed lid), and was rewarded with a click and a treat. He likes the apple treats, and seemed eager to earn more.

I took him out of the barn and went about mounting him. He has a habit of taking a few baby steps when I mount him, but this time he stayed still, and earned a click and a treat. Again, he seemed pleased with himself.

We went out to ride one trail, and I kept asking for the walk and rewarding him when he slowed and maintained his walk, with a click and a treat. But I found out it's a lot harder to give a treat while mounted, than while on the ground. I would stop him, and he would bring his head around to take the treat from my hand. But he didn't like to stay that twisted and still for too long, and I found myself pushing the treat in his mouth. Well, of course, my fingers were presenting the treat instead of a flat palm. Can you guess what happened? Yep, he caught my fingers in his teeth and I got rewarded with pain! That pretty much ended the treat offerings for that trail ride.

I'm going to continue with his clicker training. I may even just give him a "good boy" and a neck rub along with the click, but I do think he is responding to positive reinforcement...

5 miler on August 5th, 2009

2009-08-06T05:21:00.000-07:00

James and I did a 5.2 mile ride in 55 minutes. We had been riding slow and easy, but our goal is to get in 1-2 rides a week at a brisk pace. We alternated between a trot, slow lope, and a run.

Vaquero was a little rough at first, and I worked to settle him into a nice largo. He gets a little excited sometimes at the beginning of a ride, and his normally smooth gait comes best to him after a warm up. I kept him in a largo while James rode Bullseye in a slow lope beside me.

When James picked it up to a faster lope, Vaquero's largo couldn't keep up, so I let him slip into a slow canter, still very smooth. The best part of riding Vaquero is that when you transition between the lope and largo, it's smooth. There is no jarring transition into a hard trot from a smooth lope, like in my QH Woody. On Vaquero, you just keep your seat, and everything feels under control at any speed transition.

At one point, we opened them up, and I had Vaquero at a full run (I later clocked him at 20mph using my GPS) and I was goosing him to see just how fast he would go. At that point, James and Bullseye came thundering up behind me and easily bested Vaquero's speed. Bullesye, the QH, definitely has another gear that Vaquero lacks. Still, I really enjoy Vaquero's smoothness, and I'll use that more than I will top speed.

The horses were panting for a good 10 minutes after the ride. And James and I grudgingly admitted to one another that the extended loping had left our abdominal muscles hurting. It was loads of fun...

Ride for August 3, 2009.

2009-08-04T08:44:00.000-07:00

Rode about 4 miles with James. He rode Bullseye and I mounted Woody, my grade quarterhorse.

Woody has been ridden by mostly beginners for the past few months, and he has completely lost his handle. He has a very poor stop if it's not maintained with lots of firm stops and backing up. Currently, I would rate his stop a 2/10. It will probably take me a month of riding a couple of times a week to get his stop back to his personal best, which is about a 7/10. He never "stops on a dime", but rather slows down and then eases into a stop. But right now, he's tossing his head and I'm using the "emergency brake" (a one rein stop) to get him to slow reasonably quickly.

Woody is also not riding collected, and he has lost some speed control. He hasn't had a rider on him in months that insists he lowers his head and flexes at the poll, and so he's not. He's got his head in the air. And he has walk, trot, and RUN. And I want the slow canter I know he has. Needless to say, it was a "working" ride yesterday, and we did a lot of flexing, lowering head, and fighting the bit to keep him from running and to get him to stay in a slow canter.

Despite our disagreements, he never reared or bucked, but I could definitely feel his displeasure at his not getting his way.

I have a million requests from friends that want to ride with me. I give them Woody, because I know he won't knowingly hurt anyone. But I'm afraid he's not reaching his potential with so many novice riders on his back. I may have to take him back, and be his only rider for a while, to get him back in form...

Better ride...

2009-07-27T19:58:00.000-07:00

Rode with some friends this evening. This was one of those "low energy" rides, with mostly walking. And that's just what I wanted, because I'd been riding hard the last few rides, and I didn't want the horses to think that every trail ride was going to be wild and wooly.

Vaquero amazed me. He did some great walking, and was actually TRYING to check his speed to stay with the other horses. Just when I want to shoot that horse, he gets it together.

Leaving on a business trip for a few days, so I left the barn nice and tidy. I'll miss riding for a few days, but maybe my back and knees could use the recovery time. I plan to work on MY physical conditioning while I'm out.

Until we ride again...

Tough ride with Vaquero. July 25, 2009

2009-07-25T19:53:00.000-07:00

I headed out to front pasture to ride Vaquero, and I could tell right away that I was in for a rough day. He was acting very hot, and wanted to just boogie everywhere. Only this was the day I wanted him to have an easy ride. I tried one rein stops, and he circled several times before he would yield and stop. And then as soon as I released, he would fidget and want to largo or run again. I did this SEVERAL times (I mean like 10 times), and he never got calm and just stood there, which is all I wanted him to do. After about 10 minutes, when it was obvious he was NOT going to ride calmly, I decided to head to the round pen.

I moved him out in the round pen, thinking I would wear him down a bit and then try him again. I sent him out in the paso largo and canter. And I sent him. And I sent him. And he never got tired. Yes, he joined up. But he was still hot and touchy when I was working him on the ground in the round pen. I did some yielding exercises, and he did well.

I mounted him and worked on walking him. I just wanted to walk. He wanted to paso largo and canter. I decided it couldn't hurt to ride him hard and then try to walk him, when he was good and tired. And so we loped. And we loped. And we loped. I loped him HARD for about 10 minutes in both directions (that's 20 minutes straight), in the round pen, and he wouldn't stop. I'd never loped a horse this long. Surely, I wasn't going to kill him? Any minute he was going to stop, wasn't he? He didn't stop. When I was sure he would run himself to death, I let up and we slowly wound down to a walk.

He walked for about halfway around the round pen, and then he picked up speed and went into a paso corto. Are you kidding me? He still wasn't tired? I did a paso corto around the round pen and turned his nose in to the rail to slow him and hope he would see to slow down and WALK. Nothing doing. He would slow just enough to turn in the other direction, which I didn't want, and so I would turn him back. No matter how many times I tried to show him that the release from pressure and work was to walk, he wouldn't take it.

By this point it was dark, and I couldn't see to ride him anymore. I had ridden him for about 90 minutes, mostly at a canter the entire time. He was breathing hard, but I could tell he was recovering quickly. I surmised that the longer and faster recent trail rides had done a lot to condition him, and tiring him was NOT going to be easy.

As much as I hate to use treats with horses, I am getting desperate. I'm going to have to try to feed him carrot slices to reward him at a walk, and see if he gets it this way. If not, I'm looking for a trainer. I HAVE to be able to walk this horse reliably. We cannot just tear around the country EVERY TIME we ride.

This was the hottest he's been in a long time. I never felt unsafe and he never offered to do anything stupid, but it's very frustrating to ride this way. It's like driving a Ferrari, but the throttle is stuck on full, and there's no way to drive with any control...

Go all paso fino?

2009-07-20T13:19:00.000-07:00

I'm seriously thinking about going "all paso fino" in my remuda. I am now very accustomed to the smoother ride of the paso fino, and I enjoy the enthusiasm of the breed. But having QH's in my string is difficult, because the pace set by the paso fino is too much for anyone riding one of the rough trotting QH's. Granted, a smooth trotting QH would be fine, but they aren't easy to find.

I looked around a bit online, and my ideal paso fino would be as follows: 14.2-15 HH, 7 years old or older (preferably about 12 or older really), well -trained, on the smoother side of the already smooth paso fino (they are not ALL super smooth, but ALL are better than MOST QH's), lots of trail experience, loads well, picks up feet, and should have LESS than average brio - a calmer temperament than most paso finos. Should be good enough for an advanced beginner to ride.

My dream horse would also have a neat color, like a liver chesnut or grey, or even a striking bay or black. And I would LOVE it if my 12 year old daughter, beginning rider, could ride this horse and join me on trail rides.

I enjoy my paso, Vaquero, but he's only suitable for an intermediate rider or better. He's tall, between 15.1-15.2 HH, and has better than average brio. He's a nice bay, but he could be even a little flashier to match his temperament.

I'm willing to wait for this perfect paso fino...

Trail ride on Woody...

2009-07-19T19:56:00.000-07:00

Did a quick solo ride with Woody, my trusty quarter horse. It was a nice ride in the cool of the evening.

But I have to say, I'm getting very spoiled with my paso fino, Vaquero. With Vaquero, the pace is much quicker, and I can ride hard and fast without jolting my back. Woody's trot is too rough to sit, and I don't feel like posting the entire time, so my only option is a very slow trot I can sit, a walk, and a canter. But I really miss the speed of the trot because it's just the right speed to cover a lot of ground, and I can't do it on Woody because of his trot!

Woody is my babysitting horse, the one I can trust for a beginner. And he's fine when I'm running him or just walking. But he's not my favorite trail horse; there, I said it. I can't believe I'm saying that, but Vaquero is definitely my number one mount. He's agile, quick, smooth, and has improving endurance. He's showing enthusiasm for cows, and he does everything with style.

If Woody were my only mount, at this point I'd be selling him. I just CANNOT sit his trot anymore with my back.

If another paso fino, with less brio, and a little shorter was available, I'd be all over it; or a quarter horse I could trust, with a smooth trot. I guess that means I'm shopping...

Quick trail ride...

2009-07-18T20:00:00.001-07:00

Did a very quick trail ride today on Vaquero. He wanted to give me a little grief about going out solo, but I quickly took the notion of any funny business out of his head by spinning him and making him work.

We did the 3.6 mile loop in about 35 minutes. I kept him at his paso largo most of the time. We were really moving there for a while. I wanted to see how fast I could get it done, because I hope to start doing the loop twice on him, for 7.2 miles. Maybe I could get two loops done in an hour. That would be a good workout for him.

He worked up a medium sweat, and was breathing hard at the end. I'm working on his conditioning.

The pic shows the view from a high spot on one of the trails.

Working cattle on Vaquero, Chapter 2...

2009-07-17T08:28:00.000-07:00

I worked cattle for 2 hours with Vaquero for only the second time yesterday, and what an improvement!

Specifically: (1) He rested better. That is to say, he took advantage of "breaks" in the action and didn't stay worked up. This allowed us to work the entire 2 hours. (2) His neck reining improved dramatically. I had to be able to rein him with one hand so I could use the other to "push" cattle. I have usually ridden him with two hands, because I felt I had more control. He was very rough, especially turning to the left with a neck rein for the first hour, and I would often have to bring my other hand up to turn him in the narrow confines of the "alley" that we were using to push up the steers. But by the second hour, he was turning easily, and he was anticipating the action.

Problems: (1) He is still too easily bothered when I put a leg in his side and ask him to sidepass from a standstill. He wants to take this cue to mean "go forward", but when working cattle, sometimes I need him positioned just so, and the sidepass from a standstill is a useful skill. I'm not entirely sure how to improve on this, other than ground work and time. (2) Even though the neck rein is improving, it could be better, and I think this will come with me riding him with one hand more often.

One participant in the roping asked me "Is that a Peruvian Paso?". I just answered "No, he's a paso fino". I caught a lot of the ropers watching me work cattle on this funny moving horse. But I'm sure more than a few could appreciate how I was working cattle at a trot speed, but without a bounce. Vaquero was really "on" while working, and he stayed well-gaited for the entire 2 hours, so my back was feeling fine at the end.

I highly recommend working cattle on a paso fino!

Epic ride...

2009-07-14T19:44:00.000-07:00

I think loping Woody hard yesterday left me fired up to ride again today. Only this time, I wanted to ride Vaquero and push him even more.

Vaquero was in a good place from the word go. He gave me his feet as best he can - he has rather stiff rear legs, so he's not as limber as Woody in giving up his rear hooves. He stood rock still for mounting, and he seemed content to ride at my pace.

But James had an idea to ride hard, and he started trotting with Bullseye, his horse, right away. I let Vaquero follow, and we ended up tearing through all 3 equestrian trails in my neighborhood at a fast clip. We absolutely RIPPED through the last one. I imagined there were bandits on our tail; or even better, I was the outlaw escaping a posse. Either way, it was lots of fast trots and faster galloping. I got Vaquero into a flat run, and I'm beginning to find his rhythm at his lope.

It was my most fun ride on Vaquero to date, and I truly enjoyed his paso largo and his gallop. I was whooping and hollering most of the ride, and the smile I wore while riding hard has yet to leave my face...

Back to an an old friend...

2009-07-14T06:58:00.000-07:00

Lately, my quarterhorse Woody, has been relegated to babysitter. He is the mount I can trust to take care of any skill level rider. This Sunday I put my oldest daughter on him, and she and I did a climbing trail ride in my neighborhood. I trust him that much.

Woody will safely carry my youngest daughter and the greenest rider. But Woody is also the fastest horse I've ever ridden. If the right rider is on him, he comes alive. Once he knows you can handle the speed, he will give it to you in spades, and he loves to run.

Yesterday, I left my paso fino in the paddock and caught Woody for a ride. You could almost see his expression asking "Me? Are you going to ride me? I don't have to babysit anyone?"

I brushed him well - he is the horse that loves to roll, especially if there's mud around. He gave me all his feet for a good check and picking. He is the BEST horse I have ever had for picking up his feet. He is very limber, and picking up his rear hooves is a snap. He stood dead still for the saddle. I went to mount him, and he didn't budge. What a difference from my paso!

We started out, slowly. I mean, he was doing his usual walk, but I'm so used to my paso, Woody's QH walk feels like slow motion. In fact, all of his movements felt slow and sluggish. My paso is very sensitive, and the slightest leg bump or cue elicits a vigorous response from him. This was going to take some re-adjustment on my part.

We warmed up in my round pen area, and then the sand arena. But I knew I felt like running, and I was taking my time to remind him this was no greenhorn on his back. After a nice warm up, we were ready.

I rode him out to the front pasture, and we started our lope, skipping right through the trot. I made sure he had the correct lead, and we started our BIG circle. When I felt he knew the footing, I stepped it up, driving him with my hips on the straight stretches. After a moment's hesitation that felt like "Are you sure? Really, I can run?" we were off. He was in a flat out run, and the pasture was whizzing past. The wind was in my face, I had his rhythm matched with my hips, and we were enjoying this moment. I slowed him just a hair for our big sweeping turn, and kept him wide open on the straight-aways. Wow! What power and speed! And the best part is, you can tell HE likes it as much as I do; it's not forced from him, it flows like a child's sprint to her parents' arms. It just one of those things he truly likes to do.

We did this for several laps around the pasture, in both directions. He never lost his footing, his wind, or his desire to keep going. I checked him up after a bit, because I didn't want to push him too hard, when his routine lately has been slower. But he had plenty left in the tank, and I rarely see him winded.

He has the best endurance of any horse I've ridden. I seriously think we could contend in endurance races, something I'd like to do on him. Except that his trot is the roughest of any QH I've ridden. It's a very predictable trot to post, but if you don't post it, you'll bounce to the moon or until your back is shattered. It's his only true flaw. And he's smooth at the lope and run, it's just the trot that's hard to sit.

We finished quietly, and he got a rinse after he cooled down, followed by his grain, hay and his stall for the evening. I hope he had pleasant dreams of running through the pasture. I know I did...

Battle with Vaquero...

2009-07-12T19:22:00.000-07:00

I decided to forgo the trails today, and just ride Vaquero, my spirited paso fino, in an enclosed environment. With no warm up, I led him to the front pasture of about an acre or so on size, and we engaged in battle.

As is his usual 90% of the time, he had issues with me mounting. That is to say, he wants to dance when I go to mount him. So, he got sent around me longeing, and then finally calmed enough for me to mount him safely. Then, of course, he was bristling underneath me and calmed JUST long enough for me to get my stirrups positioned. He's always ready to launch as soon as I mount him. I decided that today, I was going to let him work all he wanted to.

I sped him around the pasture, following the fence line to maximize our path. We stayed in a largo and his funky paso fino lope most of the time. I only slowed him to a corto if I needed to adjust my position. We did this for about 30-45 minutes, until he had a good sweat going. Then he got a reprieve while I talked to my neighbor.

After his brief respite, I rode him to my sand arena, and proceeded to work him hard, paso largo and canter in ever tightening circles. This was good for me too, as I had to really concentrate to keep my position in this quick moving, easy to change direction horse.

We backed up, worked on our side pass, and keep our feet moving in the deep sand. His side pass is good, but he always has to overcome the idea that I can put my leg into his side. That just freaks him out, and he gets light up front and very bothered with his tail and breathing. Too bad for him, because he's going to have to get used to it. I tested his hind quarter yield with my legs, and it sucked. At least I identified what we need to work on from the ground: side pass and yielding hindquarters. Actually, maybe just yielding in general, as he develops major attitude with the notion that I can make him yield.

We rode for about an hour and a half. He was panting and soaked in sweat. I'm feeling well enough from my back to do more of this. It's time this paso got ridden to the limit...

Overdue update...

2009-07-03T11:01:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted, but I'm going to try to keep up.

Vaquero has conquered a few issues since my last post. He is backing up well, with vigor even. It took me a while to get used to his back up, because he REALLY picks up his front feet when he backs up, and it almost feels like he is going to rear, but he doesn't. It's just part of the exaggerated movements of the paso fino breed.

He is riding much straighter or "between the reins". I've taken to moving him with my legs when his body isn't in position, and he moves readily to my leg cues.

He side-passes well if he is moving slightly forward, but he kind of freaks out with the cue to side pass if he's at a standstill. It makes opening gates a little tricky.

We are working on his flat walk. He will do it, but his flat walk is still faster than the QH's I ride with, and I'm constantly having to check him or let him go and circle back. This gets him sweating profusely, because he's frustrated and wants to go. I wish I had 30 miles of fence-line to scoot past, because he'd be great at that!

In short, he's come a long way and has not offered to do anything too stupid that could get me hurt, thus far. If I was riding alone, or with other gaited horses, he'd be an acceptable mount. but it's frustrating to ride him with slow moving QH's.

Patience...where do I buy some?

2009-05-21T08:14:00.000-07:00

This post might be more of a rant, so be forewarned...

I've ridden Vaquero 3 times this week, and my hope was that frequent riding would straighten out some of the problems we've been having. Or maybe not...

(1) He isn't tracking "straight" when I ride him. He wants to sort of side-pass while going forward. I've straightened him out some by riding with my hands spread apart and working on him "riding between the reins", and by constantly adjusting him with my legs. But it's annoying. This horse is 14 years old, and riding straight is a beginner lesson. This horse should know how to do this by now.

(2) He has no back up. When I ask him to back up, in the manner I've backed up dozens of other horses, he gets hot under the collar and rears, about 1-2 feet off the ground. I can understand having to "refresh" a horse's backing ability, but to have to teach it de novo is freaking ridiculous. He did the same thing when I asked him to back when I was driving him from the ground, so obviously, he just does NOT get it. Rather than risk my life and limb, I'm going to have to commit to driving him from the ground until he does get it. I cannot stand a horse that won't back.

(3) His attitude kind of sucks. He gets frustrated when trying to learn something new, and he not only reared a little yesterday when trying to learn to back up, he bucked a little when I turned him away from home when the homestead was in sight. Granted, I could barely tell he bucked, but the "attitude" was there. I spun him hard in place, and normally, I would have backed him as many as 100 yards if that's what it took to get his head straight, BUT HE DOESN'T BACK UP! In contrast, when Woody (my QH) was having to be broken of "prancing" back to the barn, I backed him up for probably 50 yards NUMEROUS times, and he NEVER offered to do anything stupid. He would just sigh and get a little bothered. Thats a much more reasonable attitude.

I know, I know...There are no problem horses, only problem riders, and I'm sure I'M the one that needs to slow down and get more patient...The horse needs to be shown the "easy" way out and only learns on the release, etc, etc. Yeah yeah, I know. I'll try to pick up a pound or two of patience on the way home, but right now I'm pissed and frustrated.

Ground driving...

2009-05-06T21:19:00.000-07:00

I finally did it! I've been talking about ground driving Vaquero for a few weeks, and today I mustered up the courage and tried it.

It was a complete disaster, for at least the first 15 minutes. Neither of us knew what we were doing. Vaquero kept thinking we were longeing, and kept turning in to face me. That makes a mess of the 30 foot driving lines, to say the least! I was repeatedly dropping the lines and untangling them from his legs. James was watching, and he became so frustrated watching us, that he snuck off and did his riding with Bullseye well out of range of the disaster unfolding in the round pen.

But then, I uncharacteristically found some patience, the horse started to get the idea, and we were ground driving. We did well going counter-clockwise. I just stuck with that for a while, learning to manage the 30 foot long reins, and giving him subtle adjustments to control the arc of his circle.

But we had to turn at some point; disaster again! He was all over the place, reared once, and just generally refused to turn. But wait, a small lightbulb is beginning to burn dimly over our heads, and we are turning. Yes! I then worked on his stop.

We finished the session lathered. This is the most I've seen him sweat, and I was pretty soaked, too.

We have a lot more to perfect, but I'm getting the idea, and I think he is too. I can't wait for our next session...

Green grass...

2009-05-05T20:40:00.000-07:00

I had a busy weekend, and no time to muck stalls and feed, so I turned the horses out to the front pasture and let them eat some of the new, green grass growing there. I figured, "Why waste the nutrition, and I'd just have to mow anyway?". Well, all their body conditioning went to heck in a hand-basket just like that. They had 3 days at the all you can eat buffet, and it shows. They're still nice and shiny, but they're walking around with grass bellies and an extra layer of fat over their ribs.

I had no idea that just 3 days of green grass would turn them into "sumo" horses. There WILL be extra round penning...

The pics are of "Woody", the biggest pig of the bunch. I don't think he picked his head up from the grass in 3 days.

Another good day in the round pen...

2009-04-21T14:18:00.000-07:00

A great day in the Hill Country, even with a bad back. I loaded up on pain meds, and decided to test if the last round pen's session was a fluke. Would Vaquero flat walk again? Or will it be a case of regression and frustration?

We hiked to the round pen, after a little struggle to be caught. Actually, the struggle was more to get Woody, the herd leader, caught and out of the way; after that it was pretty simple.

My neighbors are nice enough to let me use their round pen. We had to wade through their horses to get to the round pen. It's not always easy to lead a horse through another horse's "turf". After getting through Yaweh, the mare, and Canyon, the paint gelding, we reached an oasis in the pasture: the round pen. The neighbor's horses stuck around for the show, however.

He did great! He was much more responsive to me being in front of his "driveline", and adjusted speeds quickly. When his largo broke into a canter, I could easily bring him down just a hair to get back into the largo. He worked for an extended period in the corto. And he walked. He really walked. I mean I brought him to a walk at least a half dozen times from the corto and largo. And he genuinely seemed relaxed at the walk.

I worked him for 20 minutes or so, until I saw lather. Then we worked on his flexion exercises. He remained mostly focused on me, even when Canyon would make runs and charges at the round pen and try to drive Vaquero. Vaquero responded very little to the other horses, and his inside ear and speed, stayed with me.

I gave him a good bath after, and that's shown in the 2 photos, one from each side.

A great day in the round pen...

Working in a girdle...

2009-04-19T20:07:00.000-07:00

OK. I know I shouldn't have done it. I know I have a horse problem. But I just couldn't stop myself. So in spite of being less than 48 hours post-op from neurosurgery to my back, I worked Vaquero today.

I just worked on lateral flexion, vertical flexion, and some round pen work. And I did it all in a girdle! Maybe a better term is an orthopedic, orthotic, lumobosacral spine stabilizer, but it sure feels like a girdle.

After some excitement when I couldn't move fast enough to catch him quickly in a small paddock, we settled in for some work. He did great. I even had him at a flat walk for about 3 times around the round pen. Our best effort to date on a flat walk was maybe 20 feet. That means I'm better able to get him in, and maintain, all of his speeds: the flat walk, the corto, the largo, and the gallop. That took about 2 weeks and 8 different sessions. I'm going to keep building on this, and keep him in his various speeds for longer intervals. I feel confident this will translate into better speed control from the saddle.

Ultimately, I'd like to be able to trail ride him in a flat walk to keep pace with my QH buddies (let them keep up rather), and use the corto and largo as spine sparing speeds to keep up with the faster parts of the trail ride.

Last Ride for a While...

2009-04-17T12:29:00.000-07:00

I went on a trail ride with James on April 15, 2009. This is going to be my last trail ride for 6 weeks, until I'm healed from the back surgery I underwent today...

The ride was quite an adventure. I didn't round pen Vaquero, as daylight was fading fast, and I wanted to maximize our riding time. This was to be Vaquero's first trail ride with me. I warmed him up in the arena for about 10 minutes. I rode him in a bit-less, rope halter bridle, equipped with two split reins that joined under the chin. I could tell right away, that we were in for quite a ride together.

Vaquero is pretty responsive with a bit in his mouth, and I have close to "pinky finger" control of his speed with a bit. But I had to go bit-less, because he had his teeth floated the day before. I was having to really crank on his reins to get him to respond, and he was basically pushing against the nose pressure the entire ride.

He didn't spook on the trail, and his smoothness was greatly appreciated, especially going up and down hills that normally I have to post with Woody. But it was a tough ride because of the physical force required to control him without a bit.

Vaquero is obviously not a "finished" horse. I suspect he has not been ridden in several months. With the help of some information from AmericanPasoFinos.com, I think I have the solution to the problem. You can read more in the forums there, and my handle is "Vaquero".

He needs to be ridden in the traditional headgear for the paso, a type of bosal that will have two sets of reins. The first set of reins will control nose pressure and head height. The first set will also work to steer him by positioning his head, and will put him in the right "frame" of head. That is: flexed at the poll, head held higher than his withers or above his topline, and moving his head in response to bosal pressure. A second set of reins will control his bit, and will help to control his speed and stop. Ultimately, I want to be able to ride him with one set of reins, probably the bit, but flexed at the poll. This type of bosal is different from the one used in western riding, but serves the same purpose. In fact, if successful, I anticipate using this same set-up in my quarter horse, to get him riding more flexed at the poll and collected. It seems like I have a lot more to learn AND teach my horses. But I enjoy the challenge. I was kind of getting to the point where I was bored with the level I had reached with Woody. This next goal of riding collected, is going to be tough, but will get me to the point of a more finished horse in both of my mounts.

The picture in this post is of the beautiful sunset I enjoyed with Vaquero, Bullseye, and James. I plan to keep looking at this picture as I recover over the next 6 weeks, as a reminder of the last trail ride, and to keep dreaming of the next one...

Great ride for Vaquero...

2009-04-12T13:29:00.000-07:00

It's a beautiful Easter Sunday. The sun is shining, and the wind is blowing just enough to keep things cool. Great day for a ride. I hope the horses agree.

Vaquero was first. He was caught fairly easily. He worked like a champ with our lateral flexion exercises we've been working on, giving to the pressure of the rope halter easily on both sides. I am convinced that he is just very out of shape, so I looked at my watch and committed to 15 minutes of continuous round pen work before I'd let him in.

He was hot at first, and wanted to canter around the round pen. I let him, thinking it'd be a good work out for him, even if I've heard gaited horses shouldn't be allowed to canter much. I needed an edge. I wanted him tired.

After a while, he was more content to do a largo, and then a corto. He was licking his lips and kept looking at me to let him in, but I resisted and sent him around again and again. We did 15 continuous minutes, and in the end, he was even willing to do a flat walk. He was sweating, but not breathing nearly as hard as he did just several days ago when he was lathered and nostrils flaring after 5 minutes in the round pen!

We repeated our lateral flexion exercises, and he was butter. OK, now time to practice standing still for mounting.

I kept the rope halter on him, and put weight in his stirrup with my hand. He stayed still. I put a foot in the stirrup, and he danced. That's it! I sent him around on the lead rope. If he wasn't going to stay still for mounting, he was going to work! He licked his lips quickly and came in, as if to say "OK. I get it. I'm supposed to be still. I just forgot". We started over. He was still, and I picked myself up in the stirrup, but did NOT swing my leg over. I just stayed there, weight on him in the left stirrup, and demanding he be still. We did this several times, and after one more trip around on the lead line as punishment for moving, he was solid! No more moving while I mounted.

Now for a ride. I bridled him up, making him drop his head for me. He just eats the bit. I mean, you'd think I dipped it in molasses, that's how eagerly he takes the bit.

I mounted slowly, easing my right leg over. Would he be still? Would he tremble underneath me and move off before I could get settled in the saddle, as he had been doing? Nothing. He was still. There was no tremble and he let me get settled and pick up the reins before we began our ride in the round pen.

We spent time in the largo and corto, and even a flat walk at times. He tolerated changing directions with only an occasional tail swish, but none of the buck he had been giving me. I've gotten used to his fabulous neck rein, and I just ease him around for turns, lest I go over the saddle with his quick direction changes! After about 30 minutes, we called it a day, ending on a high note.

Woody was next. I spent some time round penning him, because I've been often getting on him cold back, and I think he could use a little extra exercise. I only worked him for about 10 minutes, enough for a sweat, but not enough to get him breathing very hard. He has awesome stamina, however, and it would probably take 30 minutes to get him winded.

With Woody, I repeated the lateral flexion exercises I've been doing with the paso, and he wasn't nearly as good. He is stiff as a board with flexing to the left, and much better to the right. I'll need to be more consistent with doing these exercises.

We did a medium length trail ride of about 45 minutes. After riding the paso, I've got to say that Woody feels absolutely pokey. His walk feels like a crawl compared to the corto of the paso. And it's got even more bounce than the paso's corto. I'm anxious to get the paso out on the trail, where I suspect I can do the same trails I ride with Woody in half the time, and with less bounce. I can't wait to see how the paso negotiates the tougher, rockier trails, and see if he can maintain the smoothness. But I'll wait to do a trail ride with the paso when another horse can join us, just so he feels a little more secure.

I left the paso hanging on a swivel line while I rode Woody. I left him pawing and "talking". He resumed the pawing on our return. So it wasn't perfect, but it was close...

This is what it's all about...

2009-04-10T15:19:00.000-07:00

The kids and I grabbed some outdoor time today, and it was awesome.

Victoria and I spent some time in the round pen working Vaquero. He did great, and was responsive with lateral flexion on the ground and better with maintaining his speed and going through speed transitions. He was doing so well, I put a saddle on him. He danced a bit for mounting, but MUCH less than our first few rides. He was still trembling under saddle at first, but within 30-45 seconds, got it under control. The experience on the ground was duplicated in the saddle (shocking) and he kept his speed easily at paso corto for most of our ride, going into the largo only when I asked for it. He still doesn't walk well, but he can't do that from the ground yet either, so we still have work to do.

Victoria was fascinated by his different walk. Sofia said he moves like he's walking fast, and proceeded to demonstrate! V was so intrigued, that I was able to sell her on the idea of riding him while I led her in the round pen. She was grinning from ear to ear, and enjoyed the smooth ride. It was good for Vaquero, because I held him while she mounted, and he put up with her crude efforts to get on him without dancing underneath her. He also got to practice his flat walk, because I kept it slow while leading V for most of the ride; although, I did get him into a slow corto for V to "ride the glide".

The girls then proceeded to pamper him with endless brushing after the ride. It is CLEAR that Vaquero likes to be groomed.

I grabbed Woody next, and Sofia was led around. She and Woody were doing so well, I gave her some instructions on the reins, and she rode Woody free, with me walking ahead, but off the lead rope. She was turning him well, and using both hands. She is clearly a natural, and understands horses well.

Weather permitting, we'll make some time for more horse adventures tomorrow. I am very encouraged by the progress the paso fino is making, and I got the sense that he genuinely likes children. He was very attuned to the kids, and calmed down in their presence. Just one of those days when it's good to be a dad and a horseman.

New feet for Vaquero

2009-04-09T20:28:00.001-07:00

Vaquero got his hooves worked on today. The bottom picture shows his hooves before his trim. I worked him on a long lead to see if his gait got any smoother, but it's hard to tell without getting in the saddle. I'll check THAT tomorrow.

It took Vaquero all of about 2 minutes to work off the long lead line. He wanted to come in to me, but I shoved him out, and he picked up what I wanted pretty quickly. That horse is no dummy. You just have to show him twice, and he's got it. It also means you have to be very consistent, because he WILL remember what you asked for and how you asked for it. He is the smartest horse I've worked with to date by a wide margin. If I can keep up with him, there is tremendous potential there for a beautiful partnership.

He is flexing laterally very easily to both sides from the ground. I think I'll work on his standing still for mounting tomorrow in the round pen.

Saying goodbye...

2009-04-09T11:56:00.000-07:00

Went to my old stables to ride with Winter. James came with me. We warmed up well in the arena and then hit the back trail. It was just a great, uneventful ride in the beautiful, central Texas hill country. The full moon (seen in the pic) lit our path for the ride back.

I'm very much going to miss riding at my old stables. The trails and memories there will always be in my mind.

James's "Bullseye" is riding much better with the Myler bit. In fact, that bit, together with his conditioning and the frequent riding, led James to comment that "Bullseye is riding the best he's ever ridden".

Now if I can just get my paso fino "Vaquero" to that level...

4/7/09

2009-04-07T19:32:00.000-07:00

Went for a trail ride with James. Got on Woody cold-back...no problems. He was his usual reliable self, and we hit the trails after a short warm up. Did 2.5 trails, including one with a climb.

Highlight of the trip was seeing James get "Bullseye" up on a boulder after I told him he'd never do it! This boulder was no bigger than a coffee table and 2 feet off the ground. Quite a sight.

I left "Vaquero" tied the whole time we were gone, about 2 hours, and I did not notice him pawing in the 45 minutes we spent un-tacking and cleaning up the barn. I think he may finally be learning some patience!

Blocker Tie Ring

2009-03-11T20:34:00.000-07:00

Installed two "Blocker Tie Rings" in my barn today. Placed them close to the tack room and under cover, for all-season ease of use. I was pretty impressed with how they worked, although I'm not sure the horses cared how they were tied.