Epic ride...

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...

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...

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...

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?

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...

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...

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.