Harley has had some good solid rides since our lesson. I am mixing up the hard-work dressage rides with some over-poles and trail walking rides. Every other day of hard work. Some rain has smattered in the mix, making for mud and sloppy non-riding days. A few interesting points:
He spooked hard at a deer last week, but only moved off about a foot, from the trot to a complete halt, facing the treeline. He looked hard at the trees a few times past after that, but was easy to get back to work. He tripped over his feet at canter-left, and ducked about a foot to the outside of the circle. I was not only able to stay aboard, but within a half circle had him back at canter. Success! He's adjusting to the shorter reins, holding his head higher and relaxing. My right turns have improved, and he's not bent to the outside going right down the long sides. Improvement, for sure. Harley's work over poles is still great as always. We rode a day of flat poles, and then a day of every other side elevated. Next pole day, I'll lift both ends 4" off the ground. Not paying attention on pole-day last week, after the line of 4 trot poles, Harley turned sharp and headed himself straight for the one-side up cross rail. I didn't want to punish him for his desire, so I stayed the course. Step Hop, as he trotted over it all animated and happy.
Harley's hooves have grown exponentially, probably due to the rainfall, work activity, and the supplement. He had a check-up with Dr. Sam for a few shots and a dental exam. Some bits of baby teeth still haven't all fallen out, but with no eating or performance problems, we decided to wait it out a while longer rather than sedate and go digging around for the bits. One fragment Dr Sam was able to wiggle right out of his gums, so that's good progress. We've got two fragments left to go, I think.
Romeo is just plain happy Mo. Last week, neighbor Tim stopped for a visit when I was preparing Mo to ride. They exchanged sniffs and scritches, and then nTim offered him a piece of pizza crust. Mo mouthed it a while before spitting it out, searching for peppermint cookies and sunflower seeds. Mo does not like Pizza, that is all. :)
We've had a few wild arena rides of running, and a mosquito-bathed walk down the road. The skeeters will keep us on-property for a while longer, probably at least this coming week. His tummy was covered and my legs (through repellant) have about 25 bites right now.. itchie itchie!
Sunday afternoon I took the .22revolver and a box of blanks to the arena with Mo, longeline, and gloves. He did great with me firing away and at a 90degree angle to him. Great, for the first 30 minutes or so. Since it's a 6-shot revolver, and has to be loaded one bullet at a time, reload is slow, Mo watching my every move. By about the 5th "magazine", he was tired of the annoying noise, and had a nice line gallop. :)
The hay fairies greeted me yesterday with half a barn of square bales. Got lucky and found a craigslist ad on the day of baling. Hoping to snatch up the other half of a barn full today.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Monday, May 7, 2012
Harley's Field Trip
Back to full work, I spent all of last week getting Harley as best I could in his general riding. I didn't push for anything new all week, but focused on light transitions, correct canter leads, and relaxed..
Saturday, we headed up early and went to see Barb at Blue Ribbon Meadows. Minimal traffic on our journey, and we were only a few minutes late. I tacked Harley up, and headed out to longe him for a warmup.
He got lots of looks and compliments in the warmup. Harley, while cute like normal, was quite "lookie loo", and a bit nervous. LOTS going on, horses all around, lessons on going in other arenas.. :) Complete chaos, good practice for baby.
The lesson was pretty neat. Here's the highlights..
* Shorten the reins, realize he's going to fight it a while, but on the circles, ask for bend with my leg and inside hand back to my thigh. To the right, my head might be turning, but my body sure isn't. Focus on bending my hips with the turns. Certainly explains the days going right that he felt bent to the outside on the long sides.. Oops.. Rider, not the horse.
* Head-Up is better right now than head-down. By bending his neck upwards and nose in, I am "lifting his withers and elevating the front end." Otherwise, he's going to be heavy on the forehand, and hanging on my hands. He's starting to do this, and it's better I focus on heads-up than heads-down. What I noticed so far, is when I allowed a free walk, Harley immediately took all I gave him. Very nice, and I'm anxious to start this on the stretchy trot circle, too;
* Snowman circles. One big circle, and figure-8 to a little circle. Body and head of the snowman.
* Add spurs. I borrowed a paid of hard plastic roller spurs. They roll, and don't poke. With some hesitation, I put them to use on Harley's sides. He reacted quietly, much to my surprise. This will be a nice addition. Barb joked with me, "This doesn't need to be a Jane Fonda aerobic workout, you know.." haa .. okay okay
The lesson lasted 45 minutes, and when he was wore out, Harley let us both know. He started fighting us hard, obviously saying, "Okay girls. This was fun to start out with, but I can't hold my tummy up anymore, and my neck is sore!"
Much fun, and Much to work on. I love getting homework! Can't wait to get back at our drills. Two days off (yesterday & today), and we'll try some more.
Saturday, we headed up early and went to see Barb at Blue Ribbon Meadows. Minimal traffic on our journey, and we were only a few minutes late. I tacked Harley up, and headed out to longe him for a warmup.
He got lots of looks and compliments in the warmup. Harley, while cute like normal, was quite "lookie loo", and a bit nervous. LOTS going on, horses all around, lessons on going in other arenas.. :) Complete chaos, good practice for baby.
The lesson was pretty neat. Here's the highlights..
* Shorten the reins, realize he's going to fight it a while, but on the circles, ask for bend with my leg and inside hand back to my thigh. To the right, my head might be turning, but my body sure isn't. Focus on bending my hips with the turns. Certainly explains the days going right that he felt bent to the outside on the long sides.. Oops.. Rider, not the horse.
* Head-Up is better right now than head-down. By bending his neck upwards and nose in, I am "lifting his withers and elevating the front end." Otherwise, he's going to be heavy on the forehand, and hanging on my hands. He's starting to do this, and it's better I focus on heads-up than heads-down. What I noticed so far, is when I allowed a free walk, Harley immediately took all I gave him. Very nice, and I'm anxious to start this on the stretchy trot circle, too;
* Snowman circles. One big circle, and figure-8 to a little circle. Body and head of the snowman.
* Add spurs. I borrowed a paid of hard plastic roller spurs. They roll, and don't poke. With some hesitation, I put them to use on Harley's sides. He reacted quietly, much to my surprise. This will be a nice addition. Barb joked with me, "This doesn't need to be a Jane Fonda aerobic workout, you know.." haa .. okay okay
The lesson lasted 45 minutes, and when he was wore out, Harley let us both know. He started fighting us hard, obviously saying, "Okay girls. This was fun to start out with, but I can't hold my tummy up anymore, and my neck is sore!"
Much fun, and Much to work on. I love getting homework! Can't wait to get back at our drills. Two days off (yesterday & today), and we'll try some more.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Back In Action
Last Thursday, I longed Harley, and all seemed good.
Saturday, in the western saddle (translation: oh sh!t handle), I cautiously longed him including the neck stretcher, and then very carefully rode for 15 minutes. All three gaits. Only weird I noticed, was he wanted me light in the seat at canter, and light posting trot.
Sunday, western saddle again, I longed and rode, 20 minutes total. A bit more "in the seat" at the trot and canter. Longer canter work than Saturday.
Tuesday, I put the dressage saddle on, prayed, and warmed him up the same. Rode, total work 40 minutes. He was good. Fought the bit, argued about contact, but at least he was good. Took a sideways step at the canter-left one stride, but settled down quick.
Wednesday, dressage again, I asked for a bit more. I was rewarded with some really sweet collected trot, and a bit more canter, on light contact. I asked for turns on fore and haunches, something I knew better than to try on sore feet, and he was excellent!
So Harley's back. It is really nice to see him back to his quiet, cooperative self. :)
Romeo had a few days here & there. He's not as easy to tell when he's sore until he starts tip to-ing funny. Today he was about normal, flying around the arena at a hand gallop, 40 minutes total work.
In other news, CRNG has had a mini dozer at his house the last two days. He has managed to have cleared nearly every bit of brush between his house & mine. *gag* I guess no more sprinting to weekend AM feeds in my pj's, and no more quiet evenings on the front porch. Nosy nasty CRNG. Oh well...
Busy two days ahead, and I'll be back in the tack on Sunday. Cheers ya'll!! Way to go Jessie on the awesome videos with that mustang mare! And SunnySD, YOU ROCK! All those fancy ribbons! Clap clap clap!!!
Saturday, in the western saddle (translation: oh sh!t handle), I cautiously longed him including the neck stretcher, and then very carefully rode for 15 minutes. All three gaits. Only weird I noticed, was he wanted me light in the seat at canter, and light posting trot.
Sunday, western saddle again, I longed and rode, 20 minutes total. A bit more "in the seat" at the trot and canter. Longer canter work than Saturday.
Tuesday, I put the dressage saddle on, prayed, and warmed him up the same. Rode, total work 40 minutes. He was good. Fought the bit, argued about contact, but at least he was good. Took a sideways step at the canter-left one stride, but settled down quick.
Wednesday, dressage again, I asked for a bit more. I was rewarded with some really sweet collected trot, and a bit more canter, on light contact. I asked for turns on fore and haunches, something I knew better than to try on sore feet, and he was excellent!
So Harley's back. It is really nice to see him back to his quiet, cooperative self. :)
Romeo had a few days here & there. He's not as easy to tell when he's sore until he starts tip to-ing funny. Today he was about normal, flying around the arena at a hand gallop, 40 minutes total work.
In other news, CRNG has had a mini dozer at his house the last two days. He has managed to have cleared nearly every bit of brush between his house & mine. *gag* I guess no more sprinting to weekend AM feeds in my pj's, and no more quiet evenings on the front porch. Nosy nasty CRNG. Oh well...
Busy two days ahead, and I'll be back in the tack on Sunday. Cheers ya'll!! Way to go Jessie on the awesome videos with that mustang mare! And SunnySD, YOU ROCK! All those fancy ribbons! Clap clap clap!!!
Thursday, April 19, 2012
4-19-12 Feets Update
4-16, Monday evening, Harley, Romeo and I met with Mr. Eddie Drabek. Check out that website - looks all fancy n stuff. He and I exchanged some emails prior to his visit, and all sounded good. He found Romeo's hooves to be pretty short, but in decent shape. Mild bruising evidence on two, near the walls.
When I went for Harley, he was pretty unhappy, and walked off at my first effort to catch him. I am not entirely sure of the cause. Sunday, he and I had a pretty ugly argument, right about the time I asked him to canter bareback in the arena. :( I went splat, he took off, yeah, not pretty. He longed out nice, but was pretty unhappy when I got on. I apologized to Eddie, and said, "I don't know if he's afraid you're going to trim more & hurt him, or if he's just mad at me from our argument yesterday. He's normally easy to catch."
Retrieved, Eddie took a careful look at Harley's hooves as well. All four, sole bruising near the walls, no softness or other soreness, but too too short for routine work. As we talked a while and Harley grazed, Eddie said, "I'm kind of surprised he's sound just standing there grazing. It's probably because the ground is nice & soft. I bet if you took him out on that gravel road right there, he'd be lame pretty quick."
Eddie is scheduled to come back May 24, and will trim then. From my discussions with him, this is the right way to go. I'll be around for at least the first trim in-person, to see how he interacts with the boys, and how they feel about him.
4-17 Tuesday evening, I walked Romeo across the gravel road in front of the house. He was crunching rocks, smoshing through the gravel. I took it as a good sign, so I dressed him and we headed to the arena.
Longe warmup was fun, and fresh. He let out some wild galloping circles, but came back pretty easily. I hopped on, and we had about 20 minutes total ride. No lead change work, all the gaits on a loose rein. I wasn't expecting much. Total work 35 minutes.
4-18, I caught Harley, donned my tough leather gloves, and, in his knotted halter, we headed for a hand walk down the road. I was delighted when Harley started walking across the gravel near the house, smoshing rocks, and pushing dirt quietly with his hooves. We made it probably a quarter mile down the road away from the mailboxes. He stopped to peer at CRNG sawing on something with some power tools, and snagged a few stalks of tall grass. On the way back towards the house, he meandered to the ditch edge all on his own. I got the hint, and checked my watch. 10 minutes. As we approached the house, I remembered the land next to my house towards the mailboxes are for sale. I walked Harley over to it, and he briefly considered it dangerous until his nose touched and nothing happened. Another neighbor was on his zero-turn power-mower, so we stood a bit and watched him zoom around. Still nothing wild. I decided it was time, and walked Harley home. After a few steps on the rocks, he realized his feets were starting to be sore again, and he aimed for grassy yard. Back at the wash rack, his feet weren't hot, and I didn't see the same bruising marks we saw on Monday. Perhaps some of that hoof has worn off already wandering the pasture. Or maybe it was all hidden by dirt. I might hose them off tonight for a better look.
Both boys started some hoof supplement last night as well. Not permanent for Romeo, but probably for Harley. I'm hoping for a quick turn around, and some strong growth.
The Romney's Dressage Hobby
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/romneys-dancing-horse-competes/story?id=16162590#.T48gdcmBcuA.blogger
So apparently ABC thought it was necessary to take a swing at Mrs R's dressage hobby. "Thousands of dollars spent monthly" on vet, massage, and maintenance care.
Huh.. Screw you ABC, Screw you. I ride dressage. I don't own a "6 figure horse", I don't spend thousands every month, and I still compete. Am I at her level? Nope, but I have a hunch she had a few dozen years' head start on me.
Who wants to investigate POTUS's golf bill? Or what Mrs O spends on vacations with the little kidlets every month? Or perhaps their private school monthly charges?
If this election is going to turn into a jealous "he makes more than me, that's not fair", then come on with it.
Romney, 2012
Not my first pick, but WAAAY better than that moron we've got now.
You can keep your "hope", I'd like the "change" back, please.
So apparently ABC thought it was necessary to take a swing at Mrs R's dressage hobby. "Thousands of dollars spent monthly" on vet, massage, and maintenance care.
Huh.. Screw you ABC, Screw you. I ride dressage. I don't own a "6 figure horse", I don't spend thousands every month, and I still compete. Am I at her level? Nope, but I have a hunch she had a few dozen years' head start on me.
Who wants to investigate POTUS's golf bill? Or what Mrs O spends on vacations with the little kidlets every month? Or perhaps their private school monthly charges?
If this election is going to turn into a jealous "he makes more than me, that's not fair", then come on with it.
Romney, 2012
Not my first pick, but WAAAY better than that moron we've got now.
You can keep your "hope", I'd like the "change" back, please.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
4-12-12 Still Sore
Harley's still warm, all the way around. Not hot to touch, like they were, but warm... Daily cold hosing and lots of rest ..
Romeo felt good yesterday - no heat, no swelling, all was well. Headed to the arena with the longe line and bareback pad.
FAIL. On the line, his trot was rushed and short-strided. I put the bit in, and hopped on. Stayed at the walk. Romeo kept walking over along the pond long side of the arena, and stopping in the grass. He wanted no part of walking in the sandy, but only in the grass. The fluffier the grass, the happier he was. After his third walk independantly over to the water, I got the hint.
We walked up to the "gate", I unlatched things, and walked him to the pond. We stood in the soft damp mud near the pond. He let out a heavy sigh. I let him sniff the water, and without any hesitation, Mo stomped through the splashy muddy pond. Passed through the water, stopped, turned around, and he happily splashed through again, this time getting water on my boots & jeans.
As we walked back to the arena to gather my water jug and the longeline, I noticed he was moving a bit better. Didn't take long, however, before he was short strided again. I concentrated. Front... Right...
Back at the wash rack, I hopped off, took his pad and bit off, and felt the feet. Front. Right. Warm. I pulled the hose over to the wash area, and as I turned it on, Mo let out a huge heavy sigh.
Momma gets the hint, son... You're still on vacation until it doesn't hurt ,,, sorry 'bout that. :)
Romeo felt good yesterday - no heat, no swelling, all was well. Headed to the arena with the longe line and bareback pad.
FAIL. On the line, his trot was rushed and short-strided. I put the bit in, and hopped on. Stayed at the walk. Romeo kept walking over along the pond long side of the arena, and stopping in the grass. He wanted no part of walking in the sandy, but only in the grass. The fluffier the grass, the happier he was. After his third walk independantly over to the water, I got the hint.
We walked up to the "gate", I unlatched things, and walked him to the pond. We stood in the soft damp mud near the pond. He let out a heavy sigh. I let him sniff the water, and without any hesitation, Mo stomped through the splashy muddy pond. Passed through the water, stopped, turned around, and he happily splashed through again, this time getting water on my boots & jeans.
As we walked back to the arena to gather my water jug and the longeline, I noticed he was moving a bit better. Didn't take long, however, before he was short strided again. I concentrated. Front... Right...
Back at the wash rack, I hopped off, took his pad and bit off, and felt the feet. Front. Right. Warm. I pulled the hose over to the wash area, and as I turned it on, Mo let out a huge heavy sigh.
Momma gets the hint, son... You're still on vacation until it doesn't hurt ,,, sorry 'bout that. :)
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
4-10-12 Harley from Here
I gave the boys a break on Saturday, and went on a road trip to Houston. Easter morning, I caught Harley, saddled, and headed to the arena.
His trot was short, choppy, and he wouldn't bend. I gave up after a few minutes, and headed back to the house. Unsaddled, I found all four hooves hot to touch, and pulsing at the heels. Cold hosed his legs and hooves, gave him some bute, apologized for trying to work him, and headed back inside. The evening check found more of the same - heat, pulse, and unsteadyness. As I began hosing him down, I noticed he was shifting his weight a lot. Kind of rocking left/right and front/back, as if he couldn't find a comfortable place to stand.
He's still on break. I'll update again when we're back to work.
Romeo wasn't as bad. He was warm Sunday, and almost normal yesterday. I'll give him a go tonight, see how things are.
I don't fully understand this whole trimming thing, but it's clear to me something's not right. More changes to come, and I will post when I know more as I begin to understand more.
His trot was short, choppy, and he wouldn't bend. I gave up after a few minutes, and headed back to the house. Unsaddled, I found all four hooves hot to touch, and pulsing at the heels. Cold hosed his legs and hooves, gave him some bute, apologized for trying to work him, and headed back inside. The evening check found more of the same - heat, pulse, and unsteadyness. As I began hosing him down, I noticed he was shifting his weight a lot. Kind of rocking left/right and front/back, as if he couldn't find a comfortable place to stand.
He's still on break. I'll update again when we're back to work.
Romeo wasn't as bad. He was warm Sunday, and almost normal yesterday. I'll give him a go tonight, see how things are.
I don't fully understand this whole trimming thing, but it's clear to me something's not right. More changes to come, and I will post when I know more as I begin to understand more.
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