Hay in Her Pockets

You can read my latest book review for Horse Nation HERE!

I have a weekly horsey book review column on Horse Nation (which is a pretty entertaining website even without my help).

Here’s my first one!

Look for a new review each Wednesday.

This week at the ranch has been plague week.  Witness:

hundreds (I’m not kidding) of yellow jackets drinking from the water fountain and hoses

swarms of ants searching for water in my grain buckets, in my water bottle in my truck….

who knows how many flies driving the horses crazy (their stomping sounded like a percussion section the other night)

but most amazingly, the INFESTATION of yet-to-be-named bugs crawling all over the roundpen fence, footing, and the dirt and weeds around the roundpen.  Seriously, it was MILLIONS!  I’ve never seen so many bugs in one place.

If they had been locusts we would have run away screaming in terror.

For the last year, I’ve been watching Lindy trot around at liberty and wondering what I have done by bringing home this horse who moves like a sewing machine needle when she gets excited– her legs going up and down faster and faster and faster.

Meanwhile, there would be Sadie, doing a lovely, floaty, balanced and fancy lengthening right next to Lindy.

I’d look at Lindy’s conformation and think that she looked nicely put together.  Put together a lot like Sadie, in fact.  And then I’d wonder why Lindy couldn’t move like Sadie.  Or I’d remind myself how the finer points of conformation analysis is just not my strong suit (while trying to draw hindquarter triangles on Lindy and Sadie, imagining plumb lines dropping through their forearm grooves, checking the slope of their humerus and assessing the height of their stifle bulges).

For that last year I’ve been telling myself that it’s just that Lindy didn’t have the strength or balance to move like Sadie (but then I’d think about how warmbloods are born moving that way, how Sadie came to me moving like that, and I’d wonder if I was kidding myself).

Even when Lindy started being able to balance herself a bit better and slow her rhythm, there still wasn’t a lot of suspension.  But at least it was improvement and I figured if that was the best Lindy could do, that would be OK.  I really got her to be a lesson pony, not my next show pony.

But yesterday, being a crazed loon in the roundpen, suddenly Lindy pulled off a trot lengthening that had some float, some cadence, some fancy-pants-ness.

Hallelujah!

This past weekend, Lindy made her road-trip debut.

Which is to say, I put her in the horse trailer for the first time since I brought her home a little over a year ago.  But what made Sunday special was that after she got in the trailer, we headed over to my friend Mariah’s house and we went for a trail ride!  And this, my friends, was marvelous.  And so marvelously grown up for a little pony (actually, I measured her the other day, and she is now officially 15 hands– not quite so tiny as she used to be).

Lindy wasn’t totally sure she wanted to get into the moving box at first, which seems reasonable.  I mean really, why would a prey animal want to get into an enclosed box and head down the freeway?   But she was very calm about the whole enterprise, and once she figured out that yes, indeed, I wanted her to get in that thing, she was pretty game to try (see my post from Thursday describing my trailer loading technique).  She hauled well (despite a bit of pawing when we stopped to get gas), and even better, she got out of the trailer, looked around Mariah’s yard, and decided to try eating the lawn.  Now, that I like!

After letting Lindy cruise around Mariah’s yard, meeting Mariah’s horses and the neighbor’s horses and eating grass (I had to make good on my promise to Lindy that it was gonna be a fun road trip!), Mariah and I saddled up and went for a ride out in the fields around Mariah’s house.

Lindy was a star!  About 10 minutes into our ride, she settled into her usual mellow walk, happy to let Mariah and Kanan cruise well ahead of her.  She was a little worried about some of the weird things dumped out in the fields (old bathtubs, old propane tanks…), but really, who wouldn’t be concerned about those things?  And even better, she just stopped, looked, and figured it would be more fun to follow Kanan (who obviously had not been devoured by said weird object) than continue staring.

The real purpose of our ride was to work on cantering though.  Since cantering in the roundpen or arena has proven tricky, Mariah suggested trying to canter out on the trail, where Lindy could follow another horse’s lead and learn the aids for cantering in the process (and get stronger carrying a rider at the canter without having to worry about turning).

When we got to a nice relatively level straight-away, we trotted uneventfully.  So we decided it was time to canter (at this point, I should say that I like to call Mariah “The Instigator” and thus I use the term “we” here loosely.  Really what happened is Mariah insisted that we were going to canter.  I was already so happy with the outcome of the whole trip that left to my own devices, I might have called it a day… although I would have gone home slightly disappointed with myself for wimping out).

As discussed ahead of time, Mariah cantered away on Kanan.  The idea was that Lindy would see Kanan cantering and would want to canter with him.  The reality was that she just trotted happily along, letting Kanan get farther and farther away.  Yeah, I guess now we know why she didn’t last at the track (and oddly, Sadie is exactly the same way).  I will admit here that I didn’t really urge her to canter.  I just wanted to see what she’d do.  I will also admit that I kind of liked that she didn’t just canter off and get all competitive (have I mentioned I’m a little wimpy?  or that I always have time faults going cross country?).

So then we tried plan B, which was that we started trotting with Lindy in front.  Mariah and Kanan then passed us by at the canter, at which point, Lindy was supposed to canter.  Only she didn’t.  This time I urged her to canter and lo and behold, we got it!  A nice, smooth, easy canter.  Not an amazing, Clue-worthy canter, but a very, very nice canter.  We cantered for awhile and then turned around and cantered back.  Just like at the trot, Lindy was happy to stay at her own speed, regardless of how far away Kanan got.

The only “trouble” we had was that every time there was a little downhill slope, Lindy would trot.  I’m not sure if this is because I couldn’t help myself and subconsciously half-halted to try to help her balance or if she was trying to balance herself by trotting.  My guess is that it was my doing.  Next time I’m going to channel my inner eventer and just kick on!  Especially now that I’m fairly certain Lindy isn’t going to trip and fall and kill us both.

I have been lucky in that I have never owned a horse who had a serious loading problem.  But I did once bring home a horse on trial who had a trailering issue.  As in, the day I went to pick her up to bring her home, it took over an hour of several cowboys (this was a tall TB mare who had ended up in a roping/Western barn… not a good fit) doing their best to muscle her into the trailer and using pretty much every trick in the book (meaning: whips, chains, ropes, brooms…).  They got her in the trailer eventually, but it wasn’t pretty.  It wasn’t happy.  And I don’t think any of those techniques would ever result in a horse who was very willing to get into the trailer the next time.

I ended up keeping this horse for a couple months before ultimately deciding she wasn’t going to be my next event horse.   By the time I took her back to her owner, though, I had fixed the trailering “problem.”  Because I hated the way poor Bridget had been loaded into the trailer by the cowboys (who had the best intentions), I searched for a technique that would be positive.  What I found (sadly, I don’t remember where now!) was basically the technique I now use any time I have a horse who is feeling a little reluctant to get into the moving box.

So, in all its glory, here’s the technique:

1.  Walk the horse towards an open trailer (that has yummy hay in the hay bag, of course).

2.  When the horse stops (as it will, invariably, if you’re dealing with a reluctant loader), pause a moment.  If the horse looks tense or anxious, let the horse relax.

3.  When the horse looks relaxed, ask her to step forward.

4.  If she steps forward:  GREAT!  Praise her!  Pet her!  Let her rest and relax!  (you can feed treats if you want, but I like praise better.  Praise never turned a horse into a nipper).

If she refuses to move or steps backwards:  Let her know you disagree with her decision by making it harder work.  My personal favorite way to make it harder work is to either back the horse up or ask her to disengage the hindquarters (sometimes both).  How far I back the horse up and whether I use disengaging depends on how long we’ve been trying to get into the trailer…  I usually start out with about 5 steps of backing up.  The longer it takes, the more steps we take, with a nice bit of disengaging at the end.

5.  Ask the horse to walk forward again.  If she steps forward beyond where she stopped the previous time, praise, pet, rest!  If she stops earlier than where she stopped before, back up/disengage.

The important thing here is that any time the horse makes progress towards the trailer, she gets a reward.  I think the most powerful reward is rest.  The idea is that outside or away from the trailer becomes work. inside or closer to the trailer becomes a place of rest, so the horse wants to go there.

6.  When the horse finally gets in the trailer (even if it’s just the front feet), let her stay there (petting, praising, feeding) until she starts to get nervous.  Then back her out (5-10 steps).

I know.  It’s really hard to let the horse get out when you just spent so much time getting her in.  But I promise she’ll get in again.  And she’ll be more relaxed about it the next time.

7.  Immediately walk her forward and ask her to get in again.  IF she looks relaxed and happy, praise her, pet her, and then close her in for a few minutes.  If she still looks nervous, repeat step 6.  If you’ve closed her in, open the door and let her back out.

8.  Repeat steps 6 & 7.  In an ideal world, then you’d let her out and put her away so that she learned getting into the trailer doesn’t always mean she has to go somewhere.  But most of us don’t hitch up our trailers just to practice loading.  So, if you are taking your horse somewhere, make sure you aren’t trying to get there in a hurry so that you can take all the time you need (having a deadline often makes tempers flare), and then drive carefully so she has a good experience.  And then expect that you might have to repeat this technique when you load your horse back up to go home (but I will bet you $20 that it won’t take so long to get her back in the trailer the second time).

It’s really that simple.  It sometimes takes awhile, but I don’t think it has ever taken me an hour to get the horse in the trailer using this technique.  Not even Bridget after the aforementioned icky loading experience.

Because singing a song is helpful while riding for so many reasons, but in this case, it’s to help remember what you should do when you get up into two-point.

Lyrics by Ava…  melody to be determined… suggestions welcome!

Shorten your reins,

don’t be a pain!

Stand up tall,

so you won’t fall.

Push your heels down,

so you won’t frown.

It’s official:  Lindy has proved her trail worthiness.

I finally got around to actually riding Lindy out on the trail, instead of just ponying her.  Although I love the two birds/one stone aspect of ponying, especially since I believe it really set Lindy up for a successful first ride, there is definitely a difference between the way a horse feels to ride versus how a horse feels to lead.  (Case in point:  Clue.)  But I can happily report that Lindy felt exactly how I expected after ponying her for the last year.

She walked happily in front, in the middle, in back.  She trotted calmly.  She stopped willingly.  She confidently passed strange dogs.  She confidently allowed hikers to overtake her.   She awkwardly but carefully walked down the steepest hill (which is only to be expected given that the poor girl is just learning how to balance with a rider).  She only whinnied once (under special circumstances, see below).

She really couldn’t have been nicer, especially since one of the riders who joined us wanted to spend some time cantering, and as a compromise two of us rode ahead (and out of sight) and waited for the other horse and rider to catch up to us.  Once Lindy realized her buddy was going to go away and come back (repeatedly) she barely even noticed his absence and return.

My biggest problem is rapidly becoming that of  excess.  As in, which of my fabulous string of ponies should I ride?

a little walk

It was a smashing success, if I do say so myself.  Lindy got to practice spiraling in and spiraling out on the circle, almost-walking (aka half-halts for babies), and walking and trotting over painted poles (and two poles in a row).  She was absolutely willing and happy and mellow (granted she did get worked yesterday too, and it was the muggiest day of the whole summer… but still…).

The other neat thing was that my student who rode Lindy today was one of the students who worked with Lindy all last summer in the Grassroots Green class.  It took a year, but our ultimate goal was fully realized!

It was really fun to see what Lindy looks like under saddle.  I was reminded that the way it feels is often not the way it looks. In this case, when I ride Lindy it feels a lot less balanced than it looks.  Watching Lindy go for my student, she looked pretty solid and so darn cute!  I don’t think anyone who didn’t know would have guessed how green Lindy still is.  And my student thought Lindy felt great (which perhaps means I’ve been expecting too much… or that she was expecting much worse… or that some of the other school horses need a tune up…).

a little trot

The horse trial  reaffirmed some things Sadie and I still need to work on.  The biggest two issues are focus and speed.

Focus:  After a 3 year showing hiatus, it was clear that we’d lost some of the ground we’d gained in this department.  I remember the days when Sadie spooked at jump judges out on the cross-country course, sidled away from the spectators sitting under tents along the show jumping ring, whinnied in between jumps and during her dressage tests…  It wasn’t that bad, but then, Sadie did come to a complete standstill, not once, but twice during her stadium round…  Once upon landing from the first fence because she had to stare at something off in the distance (the cross-country jumps built into the arena fence?  the truck and trailer driving by on the road?  the photographer along the rail?  none of these things?  who knows!).  Once because the potted tree decorating the next fence fell over.  All of which tells me that her mind isn’t fully on her job…  Or maybe she isn’t totally sure what her job is.  Unfortunately, the only way to really work on this is at shows.  At home we don’t have these issues.

Speed:  At our first few outings, we had no time penalties.  But our rounds were pretty hairy.  Now our rounds are less hairy (although there were those two hairy non-jump related dead-stops [see Focus, above]) but too slow.  I’d rather get time penalties than jump penalties, but it seems to me we’re at the point now where we shouldn’t be getting time penalties. Even if we come to a total standstill twice on course.  Especially when we’ve dropped down a level.  Having a small arena really hinders us in this regard, because we can’t really practice galloping down to a fence.  But living next to a huge park (in which I’ve metered some distances) should help.

So, clearly some field trips are in order.