So this week has been wonderful! My boys have been at camp at the YMCA this week, all day long! That is a first for me, no kiddos around especially for that long. So I've been spending lots of time at the barn with Duck!
Of course it has been really, really hot, especially today but that isn't going to stop me!
This week my friend Liz and I trailered out for a trail ride at Anne Springs Close Greenway. This was a very fun place with some real hills and trails and Duck went like a champ the whole way. Trailered well, too. I sent her up and right in she went both directions of the trip! There were deer in the woods that she just watched quite curiously, a rickety and narrow bridge that we crossed and later out found out we weren't supposed to be on that trail, and even riding through the Kudzu forest! We kept joking that we shouldn't stop to take pictures because we might get grown over in Kudzu!
Yesterday I was lucky enough to audit a friends' private lesson with 3* Parelli instructor Dan Thompson. What an eye opening experience. He has a wonderful gift of teaching just what is needed and explaining so well using lots of simulations etc. I learned so much!
Today though was priceless. I went and rode this morning which wasn't a super great session but did end well. Still playing with getting Duck to relax and not feel like she has to go so FAST all the time. So played with that but then left, had lunch with the hubby and came back for more fun in the sun!
I decided to test out our "truth." Pat Parelli says that when you take all the ropes off that all that is left is the truth. It's hard for me because it isn't our greatest savvy, Duck is very unconfident, she loves the rope there to hold her hand. And quite honestly things generally go south when at liberty for us. We have a decent stick to me but that is about it. Try and send her anywhere and she is GONE! But, I have been playing with increasing draw online to counter the GONE factor and I would say today went fairly well. The figure 8 has been a big challenge for us at liberty. It's also one of those things I need to be able to do at liberty for my level 3 audition. So we played with it today and had twice where she went GONE when sending her around the cone, but I tried to stick with it and get her back, and it seemed to work. We got 2-3 nicer figure 8's at liberty in the round corral. Then I figured what the hey, might as well ride a bit bareback and bridle less in the round corral. Duck doesn't have near as much "go" in the round corral and I had already ridden her a few hours earlier. Fantastic! Walk/trot/backup and figure 8 at the walk. I was super pleased!
Then I hopped off and wondered since she trailer loaded so well for the trail ride if she really is getting confident or if I am "making" her load while she is online. We played stick to me from the round corral all the way over to where Liz's trailer was parked which is a decent walk. I opened the back, sent her across the ramp (with a nice bring back I may add), then asked her to load up, and she did it perfect all the way in and stayed there until I backed her out by the tail. YIPPEE! I was grinning ear to ear!!
I've been playing a bit more stick to me out around the property with a savvy string on her neck for a safety net, and it has been going pretty good considering how much grass I have to contend with! From letting her graze in the field she will leave the grass and come to me generally from about 20 ft away which is great progress for us!
So I have one more day of fun in the sun tomorrow and I plan to enjoy it with Duck!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
It's not the knee
So after having the vet out yet again, we have determined that it is not Duck's knee that is giving her pain. It is still in the hoof. It's good that it isn't the knee, but it is bad in that it is another round of unknown slight grade lameness and that it has been off and on now for over a year. The vet says it may be navicular syndrome and for starters we are going to try putting shoes on her front feet to see if lifting her up off the ground helps. She goes so much nicer on the soft sand, so it is very apparent that with trail riding and such that she is going to need the extra lift of the shoe to make her more comfortable beyond the boots that I have been using to protect her feet. At this point I am up for trying about anything!
Beyond that though things have been going well. I didn't get to play with her over the weekend but headed out today.
But before I get to today's session I want to tell you what I did last week.
Trail ride! Yippee! Duck trailered very well and we rode on the trails for about an hour and a half with friends. She was SO good, even wanted to lead some of the way. And when a tree fell in the woods and was VERY loud (I thought it was a gunshot) She just tensed and didn't even try to go anywhere. All the horses were worried about that, but they all did very well. I was so proud of her! Even ended the ride by standing up on her
The chiropractor was also out last week for Duck. Her shoulders were a bit jammed up, which doesn't surprise me. Other than a few vertebrae here and there that were out though, she was in pretty good shape! That same day while a friend and I were talking with the chiropractor I was letting Duck graze. Well one of the guys at the barn came around by Duck with the really noisy tractor holding an 900 lb bale of hay in the front of it. I tried to tell him to stop but he kept coming closer to Duck and I knew she was going to spook. She took off with the 12ft line still attached and I figured she was going to run all the way back to her barn which is a ways. But I went after her and she only went about 4-5 strides before she turned back around to face the tractor, and me and then came right back to me. I was thrilled!
We have also been playing with the figure 8 a little on the 22ft line, playing with increasing our draw. So I send her out around the cone and bring her right back. At first she was very unconfident to come back. This was very revealing to me of how unconfident she can be about things. But repetition and lots of rest in between has really helped. Now we will be moving on to the whole figure 8 which is what i did today.
One whole figure 8. You wouldn't think it would be so difficult, but it seems to have eluded me after much play in this area. How do I know? Well if liberty is the truth then Duck was telling me that only the line was keeping her from leaving and that she really didn't know the pattern. So, I am breaking it down, and then going to rebuild it, hopefully stronger and better and with her feeling like she doesn't need to go away just to do a figure 8.
We also rode today and even got in some nice cantering. Some not so nice cantering the second time, but the first time was good. If I could just figure out what it is I am doing or not doing that is adding to the inconsistency that would be great. But most of the time we are going well for increasing lengths and that is huge progress!
Beyond that though things have been going well. I didn't get to play with her over the weekend but headed out today.
But before I get to today's session I want to tell you what I did last week.
Trail ride! Yippee! Duck trailered very well and we rode on the trails for about an hour and a half with friends. She was SO good, even wanted to lead some of the way. And when a tree fell in the woods and was VERY loud (I thought it was a gunshot) She just tensed and didn't even try to go anywhere. All the horses were worried about that, but they all did very well. I was so proud of her! Even ended the ride by standing up on her
The chiropractor was also out last week for Duck. Her shoulders were a bit jammed up, which doesn't surprise me. Other than a few vertebrae here and there that were out though, she was in pretty good shape! That same day while a friend and I were talking with the chiropractor I was letting Duck graze. Well one of the guys at the barn came around by Duck with the really noisy tractor holding an 900 lb bale of hay in the front of it. I tried to tell him to stop but he kept coming closer to Duck and I knew she was going to spook. She took off with the 12ft line still attached and I figured she was going to run all the way back to her barn which is a ways. But I went after her and she only went about 4-5 strides before she turned back around to face the tractor, and me and then came right back to me. I was thrilled!
We have also been playing with the figure 8 a little on the 22ft line, playing with increasing our draw. So I send her out around the cone and bring her right back. At first she was very unconfident to come back. This was very revealing to me of how unconfident she can be about things. But repetition and lots of rest in between has really helped. Now we will be moving on to the whole figure 8 which is what i did today.
One whole figure 8. You wouldn't think it would be so difficult, but it seems to have eluded me after much play in this area. How do I know? Well if liberty is the truth then Duck was telling me that only the line was keeping her from leaving and that she really didn't know the pattern. So, I am breaking it down, and then going to rebuild it, hopefully stronger and better and with her feeling like she doesn't need to go away just to do a figure 8.
We also rode today and even got in some nice cantering. Some not so nice cantering the second time, but the first time was good. If I could just figure out what it is I am doing or not doing that is adding to the inconsistency that would be great. But most of the time we are going well for increasing lengths and that is huge progress!
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Undemanding Time
Today I spent over an hour just hanging out with Duck, doing undemanding time. We've been doing a lot lately and I realized I need to give her some more lovin' time! I tried to stay in her turnout pen, but between her and her pasture buddy Oakie, they don't like to leave me alone. Duck asked me to scratch her favorite itchy spot, her butt, so I did. I scratched and scratched all her itchy spots for a good 20 minutes. I got her halter and off we went to graze her favorite spot, the clover by the arena. The hayfield usually is where we go to graze, but it is still real short from being cut a week or so ago. We just hung out in the clover patch and I just let her graze for nearly an hour.
She gets so many flies on her, especially her face, so I did a second try on the fly mask since I first got her 3 years ago and couldn't keep one on her. Well, I found it in the pasture morning. She just doesn't like to wear fly masks even though the flies are so bad they are making her eyes tear and get somewhat goopy. And that is with me wiping fly spray around her eyes, ears, and face!
I tried putting it on again today, we'll see if it makes it until tomorrow. I may just take it off her later tonight if it is still on. Maybe then she won't feel like she needs to rub it off.
There's an idea...
She gets so many flies on her, especially her face, so I did a second try on the fly mask since I first got her 3 years ago and couldn't keep one on her. Well, I found it in the pasture morning. She just doesn't like to wear fly masks even though the flies are so bad they are making her eyes tear and get somewhat goopy. And that is with me wiping fly spray around her eyes, ears, and face!
I tried putting it on again today, we'll see if it makes it until tomorrow. I may just take it off her later tonight if it is still on. Maybe then she won't feel like she needs to rub it off.
There's an idea...
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Playin' Around
So this week has been a lot of fun and quite a bit different for me! I've been getting up real early (the likes of 5:30 to 6ish) almost daily to get to the barn to play before the heat kicks in. With the heat index here topping 100 for several days in a row I was melting when finishing riding at 11am! It's been fun to say the least, and I feel like I've accomplished quite a bit with Duck.
Finally after almost 3 years, she is cantering online on the 22ft line. It's far from totally relaxed, but much improved on our former range of non-existent canter to raging dead gallop with lots of bucking and pulling my arm out of the socket.
For instance since last week, we've gone from 36+laps at the canter to the left (her easier direction) before getting a marked improvement in relaxation, rhythm, and contact, to yesterday about 12 laps to the right (which is her much harder, I'm going to yank the heck out of you, and crossfire to boot) direction. She is still fast while cantering, really fast at times, but most of the time after a few laps I am getting some slack in the line and to the right she is now more consistently picking up the right lead, and without cross-firing! She is also stopping dead in her tracks to ask questions occasionally which at least means she is checking in!
Cantering while riding, not near as good. Sometimes I wonder if we're just going to have to go the crazy fast you can canter until you want to relax route, but she can be SO unbalanced and heavy on the forehand I worry about us taking a spill which wouldn't be good for either of us. On the flip side though there have been a few days where I have gotten more than 1/2 lap with a very nice relaxed canter, both directions so I think that is a huge improvement!
We've also been playing around with the weave while riding and getting more relaxation at the trot. Can you tell that relaxation is on the agenda?
And the other fun in playin' around this week has been in playing with two of my friends' horses. On Tuesday I got to play with Melissa's horse Tucker. He is from my observation a LBE/LBI gaited Kentucky Mountain Horse. Ok, well I kind of stole him when I had seen her struggle so long over the course of a few months I couldn't stand it anymore with sideways and him running her over constantly. And like she said later in the session, she's so used to it that she didn't even notice! (even though I have mentioned the running over you thing to her before :) )To which my BFO is 'WOW" I am not the only one who's horse does stuff they shouldn't be and not notice it! LOL
Let's just say that I think an hour later things were much better although Wednesday morning my body did not quite agree with me. My arms do not appreciate being taken sand skiing even when in a power position (which I probably did not utilize enough), but well I just don't know that there was a way around it. Perhaps there was, but I certainly didn't have that arrow in my quiver to improve his attitude without some opposition. Tucker likes running the show and he didn't like my idea that he shouldn't be pulling my arm out of the socket constantly as a prerequisite to sideways! All in all though on Wednesday the two of them seemed very happy.
Yesterday I was able to play with and ride Liz's horse, Eli. He is a very well seasoned horse, also LBI. I learned so much from him! See I only have Duck to play with. Can only afford one horse, generally only have time to play with one horse anyway if I'm lucky. So there tends to be that comfort in the relationship of what is expected, how things go etc. Well Eli was a quick reminder not to be so complacent with other horses! I about got myself kicked playing the falling leaf by not sending him out enough sideways away from me. He REALLY likes to kick out! It took about 10 reps before he quit kicking out! WOW! Talk about an eye opener! He was just voicing his opinion that he didn't like the idea of yielding his shoulder! After we got on the same page I rode him for awhile. Liz had said I could borrow him to canter since Duck's canter is so inconsistent. Wow what a dream! I felt like I was if I'd been driving I would have been in the luxury SUV! It is amazing how so many miles and experience on a horse can teach a rider. He was wonderful! He seemed to enjoy my company as well because I tried to have Christian cool him out riding him and he didn't want to leave me. What a sweetie!
So that's been the week so far! Lots of BFO moments and lots of fun! Thanks so much to Melissa and Liz for letting me play with their wonderful partners!
Finally after almost 3 years, she is cantering online on the 22ft line. It's far from totally relaxed, but much improved on our former range of non-existent canter to raging dead gallop with lots of bucking and pulling my arm out of the socket.
For instance since last week, we've gone from 36+laps at the canter to the left (her easier direction) before getting a marked improvement in relaxation, rhythm, and contact, to yesterday about 12 laps to the right (which is her much harder, I'm going to yank the heck out of you, and crossfire to boot) direction. She is still fast while cantering, really fast at times, but most of the time after a few laps I am getting some slack in the line and to the right she is now more consistently picking up the right lead, and without cross-firing! She is also stopping dead in her tracks to ask questions occasionally which at least means she is checking in!
Cantering while riding, not near as good. Sometimes I wonder if we're just going to have to go the crazy fast you can canter until you want to relax route, but she can be SO unbalanced and heavy on the forehand I worry about us taking a spill which wouldn't be good for either of us. On the flip side though there have been a few days where I have gotten more than 1/2 lap with a very nice relaxed canter, both directions so I think that is a huge improvement!
We've also been playing around with the weave while riding and getting more relaxation at the trot. Can you tell that relaxation is on the agenda?
And the other fun in playin' around this week has been in playing with two of my friends' horses. On Tuesday I got to play with Melissa's horse Tucker. He is from my observation a LBE/LBI gaited Kentucky Mountain Horse. Ok, well I kind of stole him when I had seen her struggle so long over the course of a few months I couldn't stand it anymore with sideways and him running her over constantly. And like she said later in the session, she's so used to it that she didn't even notice! (even though I have mentioned the running over you thing to her before :) )To which my BFO is 'WOW" I am not the only one who's horse does stuff they shouldn't be and not notice it! LOL
Let's just say that I think an hour later things were much better although Wednesday morning my body did not quite agree with me. My arms do not appreciate being taken sand skiing even when in a power position (which I probably did not utilize enough), but well I just don't know that there was a way around it. Perhaps there was, but I certainly didn't have that arrow in my quiver to improve his attitude without some opposition. Tucker likes running the show and he didn't like my idea that he shouldn't be pulling my arm out of the socket constantly as a prerequisite to sideways! All in all though on Wednesday the two of them seemed very happy.
Yesterday I was able to play with and ride Liz's horse, Eli. He is a very well seasoned horse, also LBI. I learned so much from him! See I only have Duck to play with. Can only afford one horse, generally only have time to play with one horse anyway if I'm lucky. So there tends to be that comfort in the relationship of what is expected, how things go etc. Well Eli was a quick reminder not to be so complacent with other horses! I about got myself kicked playing the falling leaf by not sending him out enough sideways away from me. He REALLY likes to kick out! It took about 10 reps before he quit kicking out! WOW! Talk about an eye opener! He was just voicing his opinion that he didn't like the idea of yielding his shoulder! After we got on the same page I rode him for awhile. Liz had said I could borrow him to canter since Duck's canter is so inconsistent. Wow what a dream! I felt like I was if I'd been driving I would have been in the luxury SUV! It is amazing how so many miles and experience on a horse can teach a rider. He was wonderful! He seemed to enjoy my company as well because I tried to have Christian cool him out riding him and he didn't want to leave me. What a sweetie!
So that's been the week so far! Lots of BFO moments and lots of fun! Thanks so much to Melissa and Liz for letting me play with their wonderful partners!
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