Splendid Days

I just came off two splendid days of riding and I still feeling the euphoria. The weather, for the first time THIS year , was sunny and above 50 degrees. I rode Maggie for 3 hours on Saturday , trying out the new saddle and then 2 more hours on Sunday ( I couldn't help myself!), again in the new saddle. Maggie apparently feels like a rockstar in the saddle. Me? Not so much...I have the beginnings of bruises on the inner thighs but I was willing to sacrifice a little of my own comfort in the name of getting to ride and give Maggie a saddle she could be very comfortable in. The good news is that after riding for 5 hours in the saddle, I think I have the issue figured out. Whether it can be fixed or not remains to be determined. I am working on that with my dealer so more on that in a later post.

***(E.G- if your interested in hearing the details of what I know at this point, I can email you separately since your also having similar issues, just need your email address!)

Today and most of this week, we are back to rain so I am glad I was blessed with two solid days of riding. I have no idea what mileage we covered since I forgot my GPS (too excited to be going out riding I guess!)

MMaggie is feeling very strong and ofcourse , wanting to travel a whole lot faster than I would like her to at this point. We did a lot of walking and a couple of easy hills. I'll admist, I couldn't resist letting her drop into her big Morgan trot for a 1/4 mile. She freally loats in that gait and she loves to travel in it. My guess is as she developes her lungs, muscles and ligaments, this will likely be her most efficeint gait. Last year, she struggled staying in it without breaking into a canter. This year, she seems to have figured it out over the winter all on her own.

Good times ahead ....

It's all about me.

"I should do it"... "I should just sit down and do a post.." This is what I have been saying to myself for over a week now. But... the truth is.. I really don't have much to post about these days. Nothing horse related anyways.....Sad.. really. So instead, you'll have to live through a post about me...

A couple weeks ago, I went to Scottsdale Arizona for a quick getaway to ring in my 35th birthday in style.

Okay, so last minute, my sis, mom and I decided to gallavant off Scottsdale, stay at a ritzy hotel, get served like we were royalty while we bathed in the sun, took walks around the desert golfcourse, swam in the pools, went to the spa for a massage, sat in the lavish steam room and just relaxed for a while. I gotta tell ya.. people that treat themselves to spas and fancy spa vacations on a regular basis have it all figured out. Normally, a vacation like this isn't my gig, but I figured since I had to turn 35, I may as well do something nice for myself and that was this little spa getaway. So, for 4 days, I enjoyed life without the daily grind of having to feed someone or something, no alarm to go off, no place I had to be.. just worry about myself.. I even , for the first time in my life, got myself a pedicure.. Aha! Now I understand why women go for these... Previously I usually scoffed at this idea . My toes sure look prettier than I have ever seen them before..I came home feeling totally rejuvenated and honestly, at 35, I feel better than I think I ever have.

Since I have been back, I have had to hit the ground running. Work is crazy. I leave in the dark and come home in the dark. It can be a brutal schedule. There are chores to do, mouths to feed, and my workout routine has gone back into full swing. With riding time being on the back burner for the dark days of winter ahead, I get to change gears and focus on my own conditioning. As an endurance rider, I have pretty strong opinions about the fitness level riders should be in. I think that if your going to ask your horse to carry your ass over varied terrain at speed, you had better be in good enough shape to hold your own and carry your own weight if needed. I have always been an active person, regularly went to the gym since my days in High School but two years ago, I hit a wall, gained more weight than I ever had and felt miserable. During this same time, sustained an injury to my left foot while out jogging and that set me back even further. I kept doing the same stuff over and over and going backwards. I looked bad and felt bad. I started researching a bit. I started slowly cutting certain foods out. I felt better so I cut out a few more foods and felt even better. This process went on for months. The last major jump I made was discontinuing my gym membership and getting in the best shape of my life.

Wait.... what???

Last December, I was disgusted with the gym scene. There had to be a better way. Right after that, A friend gave me a dvd excercise program to check out. I said I would, but only because I was trying to be polite. I wasn't the work out at home kinda girl. No way was I going to pop in a dvd and workout in my living room. I'd never do it.

That DVD set sat on my desk for two weeks before I finally decided taking a look wouldn't hurt anything. Well, here I am a year later. I went from not being able to do more than a couple push ups to being able to do over 20 pushups. That 90 day workout program turned into a 180 day workout program for me. It was the hardest thing I have ever pushed myself through, physically. I have never felt stronger or more durable in my 35 years. Thank you P90X.

I entered the summer months feeling great. My first few conditioning rides on Maggie didn't leave me tired and sore like they would have in the past. In many cases, I was able to get off and run for a few miles without a second thought. In June, I had a minor set back when Maggie spooked and bucked me off. It was actually a bad fall because she ran into another horse while bucking and when I came out of the stirrup, I twisted my ankle, landed on my left shoulder and bounced my head a bit. It was bad timing too. 3 weeks before my scheduled Limited distance on Maggie. I gimped around with it taped for a couple days and did the ice and anti-inflammatories for a few days but in less than a week, I was mostly fine. It hurt if I lifted my toe or squatted down but otherwise, I bounced right back. I credit those intense workouts that I had been doing all winter and spring for my fast recovery. I have sprained that same ankle 3 times now and it has never healed that quickly.

A week ago, I got back into my winter workout routine. I am starting something new for a few weeks. It's another at home DVD program. It's high intensity interval training. Having not done a regimented workout through most of the summer, I am using this new workout to limber up again. Once I complete that, I will go back to a combination of interval training and P90X.

Remember what I said up above about feeling better than I ever have at 35? Well, it has a lot to do with these workouts and my eating habits. As far as endurance, I am setting the stage so that not only will my horse go the distance, but so will I and isn't that the best feeling?

Getting on my big girl pants...

Still playing with this heart rate monitor thing and last night. I took Maggie out for a 2 hour solo ride last night and noticed some interesting things.

Up to this point, I have always had someone along with me while riding her. While I can’t use the excuse that Maggie is still new to me, I still don’t feel like I have all her buttons figured out and we are far from “gellin” yet. Her reactions to things are not always consistent. Until we get all that figured out, I prefer to have someone along with out on the trail , but last night, it just didn’t work out and.. well…she needed to get ridden… besides, it was time to take a step forward in our relationship, maybe try to put a little trust in her and officially put on my big girl pants...

Maggie was feeling rather “fresh” so I decided it would be a good night for the loop with more elevation challenges, in the hopes to channel that energy appropriately.

We headed out and took the left onto the trail I was after. Right away, while traveling at a walk , still on relatively flat ground, I noticed her heart rate was higher than what it had been running the last few times I have had the monitor on her. Of course, this is all still new so I have no idea if I really have a true baseline yet. All I can say is that in the last 5 times I have used the monitor she had been running anywhere between 88 and 94 while we walk and the ground is relatively level. Last night she was hanging out about 108-109. I thought maybe it was that she might be a bit nervous being alone and all. She was definitely much more on alert to every squirrel, bird or any other noise that was made.

During the climbing sessions, she jumped up to 155 once, we stopped and she came down to 105 within a couple seconds so I wasn’t alarmed. I noticed on the next hill, she went up to 143 for just a few strides and then seemed to level off at 136 , and stayed there until we reached the top. Not bad?? I am honestly not sure since I don't know what she should be at for climbing a hill.

As we got further into the ride, she did seem to relax and she leveled off, thus staying about 90 on the flat ground. I finally got into some area where we could do some trotting and work on pacing. I thought it would present the perfect time and would be easy without any other horse to compete against. Boy was I ever wrong! She must have known we were sort of headed in the direction of the trailer, (but still several miles away) because she was pulling very hard, very speedy. Normally at a trot, when I can settle her into a reasonable pace, she has been running about 117-118 . This time, having to holding her up quite a bit , she kept spiking up to 136-144. Way to high for a trot! That much I knew.... Clearly, she was using more energy to fight me. I asked her to walk again for a while to settle down a bit. When we got to a long section of flat open dirt track. I asked for the trot again but this time, I let her pick the pace. I wanted to see what would happen with her heart rate because I know that every horse varies on what speed they are most efficient at. It was a stretch of trail of maybe a ½ mile. Ofcourse, Maggie chose a big fast trot. Her heart rate spiked at first to 144, then to my surprise, it back off to 123 and that is where it remained for the entire ½ mile.

So what does this mean? Does it mean she has to travel at that fast pace to be efficient ? I would think that I should be able to teach her to relax enough so she can travel at a slower pace and still be efficient. ( I hope so cuz I can’t ride that trot for 25 miles!!)

What about her heart rate during climbing? If she is recovering within a few seconds to a better rate, should I be concerned that she is jumping up to 155 ? Or do I just have to be patient as this will just improve over time as her condition improves?
I am beginning to see some changes in her from even two weeks ago; a two hour ride used to wipe her out for the next two days. In the last two weeks, I am seeing that 2 hours is no longer much of a challenge anymore for her. I think we are making progess in her conditioning but I would love to get any feedback anyone with more experience than I with heart rate monitors.

Level of Condition-The Morning After

There have been a few posts of late out in the blog world of endurance riders about maintaining a level of condition on their horses. A lot of good, thought provoking questions have been raised on the topic such as how much conditioning is needed on a weekly basis to be ready for a 25 or 50 or more, how much conditioning is too much, how many miles should be put on in a week’s time and what should those rides look like, (i.e.; speed, hills, intervals, etc)
Just like so many other endurance riders out there, these questions have been spinning around in my mind as well this year. I haven’t had as much time this season to devote to conditioning as I would have liked, it’s just the way it is right now. A few weeks ago, I sheepishly admit to having a couple of meltdown moments where I slid into “catastrophize” everything mode. Between limited time to ride, having no place to condition unless I haul somewhere(which doesn’t really happen during the work week) and only having one ride in the area that I don’t have to trailer 9 hours to, I was feeling a bit frustrated with the state of things. I had all the reasons in the world to want to throw up my hands to this sport in those moments. I suppose it didn’t help when JB came up lame either, which probably created my momentary tail spin. But, in the end, it was just a meltdown and regardless of all of those things, I still want to ride my horses. I still want to do this sport. If I only manage to attend one endurance ride a year, so be it. I’ll do what I can, when I can, as much as I can.

So with that worked out in my mind, and getting myself refocused, I wanted to get a good feel for what my two horses current level of condition really might be. In my opinion, I am able to judge alot by riding a horse one day for a longer distance and then seeing how they are feeling the next morning. Sometimes I work them undersaddle, other times, it will just be liberty work.

Side note***(JB has recovered from whatever issue he was having that was causing his lameness. It’s a bit of a mystery but I’m chalking it up to the kick in the shoulder he sustained and keeping my fingers crossed at this point).

On Saturday, with the help of Tom who willingly offered to ride Maggie for me, we set out for a ride. Given the foul weather, high winds with gusts of what seemed like at least 40 mph, we decided it might be best to ride over at the State land which offers lots of cover and heavy timber to protect us from wind. Of course, the compromise for lack of wind then became creaking trees and the occasional branch crashing down.

I thought that a 2- 3 hour ride would be a suitable ride time and probably put us somewhere in the 10-12 mile range, which was more than sufficient for both of them. I even hooked up my HRM, (finally) to JB but apparently did something wrong or didn’t have enough goop because I couldn’t get a reading. We headed out on the loop that offered a few good hills to start out with but then switches to open flat after the halfway point. We walked most of the first half. Tom had to work pretty hard as Maggie is still figuring out the hill thing. Riding Maggie downhill is something akin to water rolling down hill. She just keeps building speed if you let her. Maggie motored up the hills with the occasional detour to one side or the other , going off course a bit. I am not sure if she thought she had a better route but it seemed that each time she detoured, she chose what appeared to be the steeper route…. Aahhhh.. greenhorns…. I tried not to snicker too loudly at all the machinations Maggie was going through as she tried to figure out how to engage her engine. Ofcourse, right about when I was feeling overly confident with my mount and his stoic behavior, a branch came crashing down behind me , landing only 5 feet away. That sent JB charging ahead for a leap or two. It didn’t seem to even phase Maggie, even when JB bumped into her as he jumped ahead in his momentary startle.

JB and I mostly stayed behind Maggie. She tends to get a bit racey at this point when she isn’t in front and for Saturday’s ride, Tom wanted to choose his battles for the day! ( I can’t blame him and I wasn't going to say anything ,afterall , he was doing me a huge favor ) Other than the branch incident, JB was very good about staying behind Maggie. It was a perfect opportunity to spend some time working on staying a horse length behind her. He surprised me and settled into his own pace, which happened to be a horse length behind. For most of the ride, I rode JB on a loose rein, even on some of the steeper downhill. Normally I have to give a little half halt on the downhill’s check him back. This time, he carefully picked his way down and I never had to remind him to slow up. I know we have yet to actually compete or finish in an AERC sanctioned ride, but JB seems to be graduating into seasoned trail/endurance horse. To ride him on the trail, he feels like he just gets down to business and is ready to do his job these days. I definitely felt as though we have maybe begun to cross over into some new territory.

We rode for exactly two hours and if I am correct, the loop we rode is a 10 miles. So we averaged 5 mph. Maggie worked up a pretty good sweat even though it was cool out. Ofcourse, as a green horse just learning the ropes, she’ll likely tend to work harder than JB , atleast until she starts to figure things out. No doubt she was tired at the end, but, had we asked her, she would have gladly kept on going. I see some great potential in her. She’s certainly a tough little mare…

As far as level of condition on these two horses, it’s kind of like comparing apples and oranges. JB has been consistently ridden for 3 years now and at the end of Saturdays ride, I probably could have easily done another 5 miles oh him without too much trouble. Sunday morning he looked bright eyed and bushy tailed so I decided to saddle up and do some arena work , mostly at a walk with a little bit of trotting. I wanted to make sure he still felt sound and I wanted to work him through some lateral work to help with any stiffness he may have had. He felt like he had had a week off of no work and willingly dropped into a couple of sweet little canters. Considering his conditioning has been in fits and starts this spring, he felt very good for his morning after. I think he either maintains his condition extremely well or the little bit of riding I have been doing is helping more than I thought. It probably also helped that he was not wasting a lot of energy in how he traveled. He just set a pace and stuck to it, even when we did some long stretches of trotting. I think we’re still on target for a limited distance in July.

Maggie has come a long way in a short amount of time. She is definitely the orange in the equation. She’s built a bit heavier, a bit rounder, than JB. Based on that, it may take her longer to become fit for this sport. She is also only 5 years old this month so she is still developing. It was less than a year ago she was severely overweight. Have you ever tried to get weight off a Morgan? Good grief. She’ll definitely be an easy keeper! On Sunday, I watched her pretty closely to see how she would do after that mileage. I found that she was laying down quite a bit that morning and seemed pretty tired. I took her out to the round pen later in the day to move her around at liberty, hoping it might help to work out any stiffness she may have been feeling. At first she moved pretty slowly but after about 5 minutes, she was kicking up her heels, literally, and was rather playful. I suspect that while she was a bit tired from her day before, she was still in good spirits and that was a good sign. Right now her stamina isn’t built up yet, her muscles, tendons and ligaments are not accustomed to long distances. We’ll continue with regular riding, and keep the rides in the 10-12 mile range for her for now. I think I could probably have her ready for slow limited distance in July but we'll definitely play it by ear.

Looking forward to July 17th and 18th .

Submitting to the Schedule

Ok- I give. I took at week off with plans to get some really concerted riding done, but the wheels of the universe had other plans, apparently. I think I rode once the entire week, when there was an abbreviated break of snow and rain. The wind however nearly blew JB and I across the field. Needless to say, I didn't get much accomplished, but atleast I got on and cruised around a bit, stretched our legs. It felt good nonetheless. So what did I do with my week off?? That's the infuriating part. Not a whole lot of anything I considered overly productive. Family consumed most of my time, and not exactly good ol' family quality time, but I won't get into that. When I wasn't playing taxi for someone, I did manage to get my dresser painted and re decorate the bedroom a bit, but otherwise, not much else

So the schedule isn't looking a whole lot better in the next several weeks. I have succumbed to not even try to get serious about my endurance conditioning until after the week of May 12. Besides, we got more snow in the mountains over the last several days. Can't get too far without having my horses sharp shod, which I refuse to do at this point.

Hope everyone else is getting some good ride time in!

Conditioning, Compromises and Questions

How do I make compromises and keep an endurance horse in shape?
Riding and training for endurance is a huge commitment, especially in the time department. It seems that a large number of people who are really serious competitors in this sport have the luxury of time to commit to it. I am not one of those, especially right now. As Spring weather is arriving, I am going a bit crazy. I work full time (+) and, until May, I am also going to school. Time in not in my favor but I still want to keep my thumb on JB’s fitness level. We are slated for a limited distance, our first ride of the season, the weekend of July 17th. By May, school will be out, but until then, riding time will continue to be limited. So how do I accomplish my goal? and keep my sanity? (I do need at least a few hours of sleep)

For now, I am just trying to do as much as I possibly can because I am a firm believer that doing a little is better than doing nothing at all. But how little and how often? Can I realistically keep a horse fit enough on these time restraints to be ready for my first ride of the reason on July 17th? I’m planning to do the limited distance. I had hoped to have both JB and Maggie ready for this ride so I could ride one horse each day, but that is one compromise I have already come to terms with. I am only going to be able to have one horse ready and that needs to be JB.

Here’s my Plan: I would love to get some feed back.

Session 1:
From now until Mid May – 8-10 miles rides on Saturdays and Sundays, every weekend. Two days a week of 1 hr sessions in the arena of trotting/cantering and dressage exercise. It seems this would at least serve to keep JB legged up and in halfway decent condition.

Session 2:
May 15 – July 12- I can probably manage a ride 2 evenings a week consistently of 8-10 mile from home (since it’s the work week and I won’t have time to haul anywhere after work) and then either Saturday or Sunday as my long day in the saddle away from home. Maybe 15-20 miles, depending on the terrain.

Here are my questions:

For session 1, would 8-10 mile rides back to back from now until May be too much if it’s fairly flat (at 7-8 mph trot)? JB seems to have handled 6-7 mile rides really well right out of the gate a few weeks back after being off for 3 months.

For Session 2- Is one weekend day of longer miles enough when combined with the shorter rides during the week?

For my goal of the July 17th ride, What’s too much? What’s not enough??

Am I being reasonable in my goal to have him sufficiently ready for that date?

Also, to keep in consideration, JB tends to be of the “hardy” sort and seems to recover from a long day in the saddle quite well. In fact, I can see him excelling at multiday rides more than one day 100 milers…but I also don’t want to take advantage of that fact and risk over conditioning.

I realize so much of this depends on the individual horse, but I am looking for guidelines from those of you with the experience that I lack. So, please… share some of your thoughts, experiences, suggestions.

Saturday Sunshine, More Miles

The day started out on the chilly side but the sun was out. I would take JB out first. Things got off on the wrong foot while I was trying to get him ready. His deep seated fear of motorcycles, 4 wheelers, snowmobiles, (or anything in that category ) came bubbling to the surface when a neighbor from down the road came by our house on a scooter. JB happened to be tied to the trailer, far out of harms way , but it doesn't matter with him. It could be a mile away and he gets worried about it. He paced frantically at the trailer as the scooter passed by. I am not sure how I am ever going to get this horse through this now. He was actually doing quite well until last fall when he was traumatized at the ride in Washington when we had to pass right through the middle of a dirt bike rally.Anyways, I could see that the scooter set things in motion for our ride today and I almost decided against going since I was a bit on the edgy side now, and I knew I had seen a couple other 4 wheelers go by earlier. If I went out, there was a good chance I might run into one of them. I really didn't want to give JB another bad experience but at the same time, I need to continue to expose him to it and hope that eventually I can get him over this fear. I took my time saddling and and getting him ready trying to decide what to do. I decided to handwalked him up and down my dead end road for about 15 minutes to see if he would settle in a bit(and it would give me a chance to settle my nerves) It seemed to work and he started relaxing a bit. I walked him up the road until I hit the dirt road and then got on. JB was pretty tense but after about a mile, he settled in. No dirtbikes or 4 wheelers to be seen.
Most of the vehicles that came by were courteous today and slowed way up. Ofcourse, I stop my horse and face the oncoming car. It seems to send the message loud and clear to "slow down"! Not sure why it works but I am going to keep doing it. We made it back and the last mile of the 4 we completed was probably the best. Just as we were coming over the last little hill before my house came in to sight, the 4 wheeler came down the road. JB ofcourse locked on and tension ripped through him again. Luckily the 4 wheeler went the other way.. thank goodness. JB relaxed again and we made it home with no further incident.

Since the sun was still shining, I quick grabbed a snack and caught Maggie.
The photos posted below in the reverse order that I wanted them to post in. I tried everything and cannot resort them on the page. I even tried refreshing my blog by clearing my cache, but it didn't work. I gave up after fiddling with it for a half hour. (If anyone has any suggestions, please do tell because it's absolutely maddening not to be able to organize the photos the way I want to)

Anyways, Maggie is saddled and ready to go in the first photo. I have to ride her in my western because its the only saddle I have that fits her table back. She is ridiculously broad. Scroll down to see the before and after She was an absolute mess when I caught her. She apparently has been enjoying the mud a little too much.

Maggie and I went about 4.5 miles. This was the second time I have had ridden her with out a companion. She's very honest when she is unsure about something. She just stops short(very short) and looks. Sometimes she shies a bit but so far nothing too out of control. All in all, I was quite proud of her today.

Conditioning in Full Swing

I love long weekends but I usually come out of them totally exhausted because I crammed so many things into the schedule. This past weekend was no different. Now, I am feeling the effects of just that. I guess the conditioning season has officially started for me, but I am afraid to even say it, lest there be a snow storm to stop the progress I feel as thought I am making. (knock on wood) Compared to the last two years, I am getting riding time in way earlier than usual.

First order of business; ....News to share
The weekend started off busy with non-riding activities. The distance riders group I am a member of, Hooves and Company, has started the planning process for the July endurance ride that will be held in this area. Guess who is part of that planning process? We’re a small group so it takes all of us to get things accomplished. Since I plan to ride both days, my contribution will be in pre planning instead of volunteering this year! The ride is on the AERC website as Hooves & Company for the NW region. CHECK IT OUT! The location is new for the ride this year and if you haven’t ever been to this area for an endurance ride, consider putting this one on your ride calendar. It’s July 17th and 18th. The scenery, trails and camping accommodations are going to be fantastic. If you want more info, email me. I will be glad to tell you what I know, which at this point, isn’t much but stay tuned!! I should be getting some first hand knowledge over the next several weeks. Here’s the scoop; We were granted permission to use a large guest/cattle ranch west of town, which is surrounded by National Forest. This is new territory from where we have held the endurance races in the past. Given the new territory, Hooves and Company members have lot of new trail to identify. Thank goodness for Google Earth, GPS and nice ranch owners!.

Back to the riding part of the weekend;

Riding was first on the list for Sunday. I wanted to get both JB and Maggie out for some miles. Tom, also getting the spring riding itch, decided to come along for a ride when I took Maggie out. I was happy to have the support and company of him and Cassidy. Maggie started out a little strong and ramped up but listened well when I asked her to check back. Of course, being young, she had to be reminded frequently for the first 2 miles. After that, she seemed to catch on and realize we didn’t need to hurry. She only argued with me once when I asked her to stop and wait for a truck to come by. Her argument was a shake of her head. For the rest of the ride, she settled into a nice flat footed steady walk, on a loose rein! This mare definitely has some “smoke” so my focus with her is keeping things quiet and relaxed. She has a real knack for going from 0-60 in nothing flat! Tom tells me it’s pretty common in these little Lippitt Morgan’s. I guess he’d be the expert having raised and trained them for as many years as he did. She is surprisingly very responsive to half halts and is responding well when I ask her to “chew the bit” down and travel long and low. Overall, I think we are off to a great start.

Focus area with her:
Be choosy about who I ride with, when I ride her . No fast rides! No nervous riders!
Continue to keep the rides quiet and easy
Exposure to new things to help build her confidence
Do not get caught up in enjoying her speed!!! (We’ll save that for later)

One thing that stands out to me about Maggie is that she has such a willingness to go, and keep going, that I will have to be careful about distance. Her strength, both mental and physical, can be deceiving on how tired she truly might be. We went 6 slow easy miles with her felt like a good starting point for her fitness level. I will keep her between 5-8 mile rides over the next several weeks and pay careful attention on her recovery. As soon as my arena is snow free, we’ll be back at working on basics. She is still very green so basic training will take precedence over distance work. If all goes well, I hope to have her ready for her first limited distance at the July ride. Our plan is to get the turtle award.

By the time I finished with Maggie, grabbed a snack, rehydrated and got my self geared up to go back out and do it again, the day was getting away from me. I saddled and booted JB in a big hurry. We only went 3.5 miles. I would be meeting a friend the next day for a longer ride so I wasn’t too concerned about mileage. I just wanted to get him out to stretch his legs a bit. My ride on him had me working full time to keep him between the “navigational lines”. He wanted to look everywhere but straight ahead and we looked like a drunken sailor as we wandered back and forth along the road. After about a mile and a half of this ever so fun exercise in patience (on my part) he finally settled in and started listening. He has developed a nice rhythmic walk. The trot however is a different story these days. A year ago, I was peddling him along, fighting for forward every step of the way. Looking back, I know this had to do with how his feet were feeling and that he was also stallion. While he still gets a bit concerned about who were leaving and often tries to look behind us, the need for peddling has long since gone away. JB has found his big horse trot and Sunday’s ride had us cruising along pretty nicely. As much of a thrill it is to ride him in this big trot (which is amazingly smooth) it is early in the season and I don’t want any injuries!!

Monday’s ride we completed 6 miles of mostly trot work. Other than his melt down with having to get by a grain truck filling up at the silos, and the noise and sight of the auger, he was a real trooper. I worked on switching from leading to following with Debbie and her horse and maintaining a steady pace.

Focus areas for JB:
Develop various speeds within the trot
RATING, RATING, RATING ( if you had asked me a year ago about having to do this with him, I would have laughed at you)

That’s all folks.. now back to work…

Legging up again...

I did stick to the plan and get out out with JB for our first real "condition" ride of the season. A friend came over to join me with her horse , also her first ride of the season. JB was being pretty well behaved considering. He got a little ramped when Rena, the friends mare, starting jigging. Both horses were feeding off each other's energy and it would not have taken much and they would have been at a full run. Note to self, first few rides out, go it alone maybe....

It took some time but he did settle back into a walk, a fast walk, but a walk nonetheless. It wasn't the warmest day but I had bundled up well enough , only my feet got a bit cold. We ended up turning back at 2.5 miles up the road, since we started running into ice. Besides, 5 miles for the first time out was probably sufficient. I was pleased with JB , he felt quite strong after being off for a solid 3 months. He could have gone another couple miles with out any trouble but we'll take our time legging up and getting back into condition. I didn't get to use my heart rate monitor because I was so excited about just getting out to ride, I completely forgot. Next time though. It will be a busy week and I likely won't be doing much riding until next weekend again...

darn it.....

Test Drive

You met Maggie last June. I did this post when she arrived ( previously known as April) arrived at Acer Farm. She was here strictly for one reason; , that was to be bred toJB. The breeding never occurred because an unexpected offer lay on the table ; April's owner at the time, due to health issues, said he would like me to have her, but if I couldn't take her, she was headed to Oregon, with what sounded like a questionable future. And so, over dinner, we made the deal and the Doe eyed Diva stayed put. I had no idea , really , at the time if she would really do much in the way of endurance but something about her peaked my curiousity..... The first order of business however, was to get her dry lotted. She was terribly overweight and on the verge of founder. She was herd bound with her damn, who she arrived with. She was all attitude... and I liked it....

Over the next several months, we got to know each other during round pen or arena sessions, working on the basics. We made leaps and bounds in the bonding process because she hated being confined to her pen and seemed to looked forward to the distraction of our sessions.

So, 8 months later I am seeing a slimmer, more mannerly version of the same horse out in the pasture and we have started some very initial spring training. In the last week or so I have pulled her out of the pasture, done a cursory brushing, slapped on JB’s older Epics and took her along with me and my dog for a walk. May as well kill two birds with one stone, right?

Normally, my preferred choice of getting a colt out and about is to pony them, but I am a total chicken about the footing right now. It’s still slick in many areas along the roads I use for conditioning. No sense putting me and two horses at risk. So we walk and sometimes we stop, we look, we carry on..

Hand walking certainly has it’s benefits. It's like a test drive, get a feel for things and play it on the safe side. Since I only got the chance to take her out on the trail once last summer and she had a buddy along, I wasn't sure how she would handle leaving the herd, deal with passing vehicles, any of the other distractions we might happen upon. I wanted to set things up so Maggie could begin to look to me for confidence. Hand walking seems to be a great way to do that.

It also gives me opportunity to work with her on leading, manners on the lead and getting her to respond to voice cues. We pass the miles , when we are n't stopping to gawk at something, working on whoa, walk, walk up, trot. It's a good thing she doesn't have to chew gum and walk at the same time because she doesn't seem to be able to multi task yet!

The trotting in hand sessions have been kind of entertaining. She has a nice little jog that I can easily keep up with for some time on my own two legs, a job that I can picture riding along to for miles on end; but she tends to get caught up in the moment and shifts down a gear , or two , and gets into her big Morgan road trot(that thankfully isn’t totally developed). I have to stop her because I can’t keep up. Obvioulsy Stupidly, I have tried, atleast given it my best shot but the short legs don't stand a chance. She just kicks it down again and goes faster... (I think she likes to race!) Not sure where her final gear might be, but I suspect as she gets in better shape, she might find a few more... good for later, bad for now...

On our last walkabout, during one of these trotting sessions, it hit me like wall. I suddenly realized what it was.... the thing that I saw in her early on.. but couldn't quite put my finger on...her power. It resonates off of her, travels down the lead line and hits me like a bolt of lightening. This I think , will make a fine endurance mount.

As for JB, no I haven't forgotten him. His turn will be this weekend.. He's healthy, strong and has been vibrating for weeks. It's time to rechannel that energy into something productive. If he comes out of spring at all like he did last year, I might need to find my Hi Ho Silver Costume first.

"Objects in Mirror are closer than they Appear"

The ground is snow covered and the footing isn’t fit for much unless you have skis on, but I am making my game plan for the 2010 ride season. Before I looked ahead, I had to assess where I had been…a look in the rearview if you will. Did I accomplish my goals? What did the conditioning schedule look like? Where were the gaps in my program? What do I need to change?

So for today, I will outline my goals and tally the numbers… the review of those will come in a follow up post , as time is a bit tight.

My goals for 2009 were pretty straightforward:

1) Continue to build on his responsiveness to aids
2) Lateral work, lateral work , lateral work ; to develop the muscling and structure to carry himself and a rider correctly. (this will always be on going as part of our training)
3) Continue with steady dressage lessons to improve my communication with JB, and develop discipline in him, working towards collection and lightness.
4) Finish one 25 mile ride in competition with JB, successfully with no health or soundness issues.

I began to calculate my miles out and realized I had not been very good about tracking things accurately. I am not sure what happened but I think part of it was that my focus was not really on getting miles, at least not early on. I remember taking JB out on the first couple of spring rides out and I realized , rather quickly , that I had a few “training” issues that JB so kindly presented to me. More than once, I ended up hand walking him home because of his behaviors and once, I sustained a kick in the shin when I was trying to adjust a hind boot. To me it was more important to have a well disciplined horse to ride, and handle/ I did not want to become known as the endurance rider who rides that “cute but out of control horse” To add, I was dealing with a stallion at the time and I knew I had better get things handled pronto…so, it was at the point I decided, I would address those things early on, at home, in the arena, and worry about miles later..

Back to the numbers....

I am not sure that I can really count the hours we worked in the arena as “conditioning” . My initial thought was I shouldn't but then I thought.. why not? While a good endurance horse has to be aerobically fit, with a strong heart and lung capacity, he also needs to have the opportunity to developed the musculoskeletal system, in order to carry himself and a rider over many many miles. Without a good foundation in strength, structure, and muscling, horses risk more injury and/or a shortened career. While it’s not a guarantee, it’s my belief that correct lateral work, and ground work excercies a nd time spent doing dressage, can only improve the horse and rider long term. So, for fun, I decided to give myself some credit for that.

The next obstacle I ran into was just how to give myself credit. It’s difficult to give arena work miles….

Here is what I ended up doing: I know I can cover 2 miles in 30 minutes with JB and while I know that number is conservative, I did not want to inflate anything. We’ll call it ....RSD (really slow distance). I used that as my guideline. Each 30 minute session was about 2 miles of conditioning or 1 hour of arena work was approximately 4 miles.

Since I intermixed the ride time in the arena with actual miles , atleast once in a while, I took an additional step and broke out between actual miles and Arena miles.

**Of Note:
May- I am pretty sure I probably rode more than just twice in this month but I did not record any additional since I didn’t have the data and therefore, I only recorded the two days.

June and July- These two months are kind of tricky so I had to use an average here. On one calendar , I did mark down that I rode an average of 2 x per week in the arena with a few weekend easy trail rides for June, In July, I have journal entries that indicate that I began upping my endurance miles, but didn't actually record these miles... (must have been a time thing) . So I improvised. I calculated 16 arena miles ( 2x week at 30 minutes each= 4 miles /week) and 12 trail miles,(4 miles each, 3 times that month). These numbers are probably on the conservative side but, again , trying to avoid inflation.


Here is what we accomplished, give or take:

Month Arena Miles Actual Miles
February- 8 0
March 4 19.5
April 38.5 7
May 5 0
June 16 12
July 16 12
August 10 42
September 4 102
October 12.5 40
November 12.5 0

TOTAL 126.5 234.50

Combined, it 361 miles...not too shabby....


So, did we accomplish our goals? I can honestly say we put a good dent in them. I accomplished #4 for sure and still tickled about how well JB did on that ride. We continue to take dressage lessons and JB is really coming together in the lateral work and flexion department. He is getting softer and softer in the bridle.

I have some additional thoughts on the numbers /miles that I will share in another post.

In the meantime, 2009 will absolutely go down as a very successful year for JB and I.

Feel free to comment on your thoughts/opinions of counting arena time, or what you think of the conditioning that we accomplished.

It's Done

It's that time of year again, renewal time for AERC. It was easy last year. JB was the designated horse for the sport. I signed us up and all I had to do was focus on him.

This year, as you all know, Maggie appeared on the scene and was given a free pass to stay on at Acer Farm. My decision to keep her was based on the simple first hand knowledge that the breeding lines that this mare was from produced exeptionally tough horses. That was all the potential I needed at the time. (oh, and the big doe eyes played a part in the decision as well)Maggie arrived, on the verge of founder with one more glance at green grass and went immediately onto a new feeding program. It involved many months of being dry lotted with very small amounts of grass hay through out the day, a program that made her sour and unhappy about life in general, having been used to running on over 20 irrigated acres of lush pasture. Seeing her so unhappy, I began the process of getting acquainted with her by taking her out for walks or short excercise periods in the round pen. We spent many hours working on basic ground manners, something she was lacking. As time slowly passed, her body condition went from a high 7 to a low 6 in 3 months. She proved to be an athletic , strong mare, despite her weight and build. Explosive power when she is motivated. Getting to know Maggie was an interesting journey. For the last several years, my main focus had been JB. While I own and ride several of the other horses here at Acer Farm, they are mostly well trained or much older and I don't spend alot of concerted "training" time with them. Maggie was the second addition to my training program. I quickly found out that she is nothing that JB is and everything that JB is not. There could not be two more polar opposite personalities than Maggie and JB.

Since June, the weight has continued to come off and she was beginning to get a little bit better conditioned with her sessions in the round pen. I got about 20 rides on her by late summer and she was beginning to show me more of her personality, as she felt better and better. Today, she is about at a weight that is as close to ideal as I can get her without alot of conditioning but she remains a large , round barreled, flat back horse. It's her conformation and there isn't much more to be done about that. She can probably still lose about 50 pounds and with additional condition , she will develop more muscle, but her build will remain similar to what it is now.

I have labored over whether my initial hopes of making her an endurance prospect were realistic . Is endurance really the right path for her, given her build? It's a frequent topic of conversation with my husband, since he was the one who bred, raised and trained these Lippitt Morgans for years. He surely has the experience with what they can and cannot do. We both agree that this mare will certainly endure the mental and physical toughness that the endurance sprot demands, however he does not share my concern in her ability to cool properly and recover quickly enough. Tom has always used a Lippitt Morgan as his riding horse, whether it was his journey on horseback from New Mexico to Montana, long days of helping with working cattle, or the miles he has ridden in the backcountry. He is drawing his sentiment of the ability of these horses directly from his experiences of these horses. But still, it wasn't usually at speed so I am left to wonder.

Concerns aside, I decided that there is truly only one way to find out. That is to begin , as initially planned last June, conditioning Maggie for the sport this spring. I will monitor and track her recoveries closely and see what she has to tell me. A horse that is fit to continue is different than a horse that will simply continue regardless of whether they are fit or not...Time and miles will be our guide.

So , with my decision made, a heart rate monitor on the Christmas wish list, I added "Z Halcyon April" to the renewal application for AERC. It's signed ,sealed and delivered. Maggie will officially join the AERC crowd.

We'll see what Morgan has to show me.

JB Conquers Lupine Lake ; A Mega Climb

For the last several rides, I have slowly been asking JB for a little more , a little more distance or a little more speed, or tested him in challenging terrain. Each time, he is meeting that challenge and surprising me with his abilities. For whatever reason, he is really coming into his own and all the doubts I was having even just a few months ago, are slowly fading with each ride.

This past week I didn't get to ride but once (a six mile speed run) due to hours at the office . This weekend I joined a friend for a hill day workout. We would be heading west of town to Ashley Mountain and Lupine Lake trail. This was new territory for me but it offered some great technical training trails along with some serious hill climbs, water crossings , great scenery , and the opportunity to run into Moose or possibly even a wolf or two. (hopefully not!)

The first 1/2 mile of the trail decended us down, down , down into a creek bottom. Going downhill is hard enough on a horse, but add in large rocks, stumps , a sharp corner with a shear drop off,and it makes it all the more a challenge. There were areaa on this part of the trail that made me thankful I had JB responding to leg , hand and seat aids effectively. JB hasn't figured out that going downhill is easier if he gets on his haunches but he took his time which is the first step. There were spots where he had to drop off a ledge of rocks. He would stop to look at the footing before he stepped down. Exactly what he needed to do.

After the initial steep decent, the trail leveled off for a while before it started a gradual climb up to the lake. In various spots, it opened up enough to do a little trotting. We reached Lupine lake, about 3 miles into the ride. JB was already pretty sweaty.

We took about a fifteen minute break here at Lupine and there was one fisherman in the background. I shared my sunbutter and apple lunch with JB, who ended up getting most of it... Oh well, I was happy to share! He also got a few carrots as well, which he knows I pack along with on every ride!! I offered him a drink but he wasn't interested.

We headed out and JB took the lead. For the next 3 miles or so, the real climb began. He wanted to rush a bit on the uphills but since it would be a long climb I had to check him back and make him take his time. At about a 1.5 miles of steady , slow but steep climbing, I jumped off and led JB for a while to give him a break. As good as he has been going, I did want to over do it with him.

We finally arrived at the top, and JB was definitely tired. I am not sure what the elevation was exactly but high comes to mind. We popped out onto an old logging road. I loosened JB's girth , let him graze, and offered him a drink out of my water bottle. He wasn't too interested but was definitely hungry. While taking our rest, some hikers came along with a blind dog. We visited with them about the area and even got some information about some other trails in the area. After about 15 minutes the horses seemed to be recovered and we headed back down. We both led our horses down the steepest parts.

The decent we made in the first 1/2 mile of the trail was now a steep climb out as the last hurrah before our day was over. I wasn't certain JB would have enough gas in the tank to climb out of there but to my surprise, he scampered up that hill like a champ. He had definitely figured out how to push himself off his hind end in climbing.

It seems JB is really coming along and proving himself not only as good endurance prospect but a tough little mountain horse as well! It's been a long road for us and I couldn't be prouder of this little horse. He just keeps getting better each time we go out on a ride. I only wish it was the beginning of the season instead of the end!

****By the way, we never did see any moose or wolf, thankfully.

Bittersweet Weekend

Well, the weekend sure didn't go like I had hoped, or atleast start out like I had hoped. Friday night, one of our last remaining two dogs took a turn for the worse . We have been battling urinary issues, bladder issues with her for quite some time and knew that is was only a matter of time. Saturday morning found us at the vet clinic with Morgan, our 14 year oldBorder Collie/heeler cross. While we waited for the xray to come back, I couldn't believe that it was just a few short months ago I was in the same room with our Samoyed, facing the same heart wrenching decision.. The prognosis was not good and there was nothing left to do. Saturday came and went with many tears shed but there was also much work to do as well. We had another load of hay coming, unexpectedly. So, with the wind out of our sails, we grunted and sweated our grief away over the 5 ton of hay staring at us, with a dark gray cloud looming in the western horizon. It was ominous looking and fitting for how we were feeling. We finished , barely in enough time before the rains came in a fury. We spent a quiet evening at home, lost in our own distant thoughts. The day had turned out so different than we had planned.

Sunday, I did a quick ride on Maggie in the arena and went to visit the parents, and planning my ride for today. I was meeting up with a couple of friends, hubby and his good friend was also coming along.

The plans found us riding in new found territory so we set out and I was excited for the new adventure. We found some great new conditioning trails and several of us decided that we would definitely be heading back , maybe as soon as next weekend. Unfortunately, it's about a 45 minute drive for me to get there. There were several tricky water crossings. JB and I had several good training "opportunites" and finally , he realized he didn't have to be a grand prix jumper over water crossings. I was very thankful for my jumping background and ability to stay with him as he launched us over several cricks, that did not exactly warrant that kind of effort! By the last water crossing, he was crossing much easier, still uneasy about it but no more sky rocket launches, thank goodness!!

We had one potentially bad situation where Sherrie's horse suddenly kicked at JB while we were all standing there trying to decide which way to go. The loud Thwack it made and JB's reaction , I thought for sure, he balsted JB's knee in two. I jumped off immediately and looked him over... nothing.... We were farily close so maybe it wasn't as hard as it seemed but it sure sounded hard. What may have happened was the horse may have caught the front of JB's easy boot but I was sure the kick made contact much higher. JB was no worse for the wear and seemed fine , after the initial stun , so we went on our way and he continued to be fine.. I guess these Barbs are tough because a hit that like that should have hurt more than he was letting on. Needless to say, I didn't ride next to Sherrie for the rest of the day... I wasn't going to take any chances. The last thing I need is for JB to get kicked and injured now!

We kept on riding and we estimated, although it was hard to tell, we covered atleast 12-15 miles. JB never really seemed overly tired, and we did trot and canter in several areas. Overall, JB was a real trooper, in spite of the fact that he got blasted for no good reason while he minding his own business. Poor Guy.. he got extra apples and carrots tonight..

Go Climb That Mountain

This weekend, I hope to scramble up Columbia Mountain with JB. Pictured above is one section of trail. This is a brutal trail with 4,000 feet in elevation gain and total of 12 miles, round trip. ( hmmm, on second thought, crawling might be a better choice of words) There is also an elevation loss of several hundred feet in the first two miles. A total elevation gain /loss ratio of close to 9,000 feet round trip. I hope were up for it. Behold the prize that awaits us though! A view from the top!

Looking out to the Swan Mountain Range (which is where the Crane Mountain Ride was)

Maggie is also on the weekend agenda for saddle time, but I think we'll stick to some easier work for now. Here are some photos of some of the trails I ride on frequently , trails that are more condusive to a beginner... but still offer a great view.

Magical trails, Poker and Horse Deals

It’s been a while since I have posted much about JB. Mostly, I have been riding him at home in the arena, working on dressage. He is really coming along well and getting his transitions and lateral work better each week. Two weeks ago, I started him over fences. He seems to really be catching on and enjoying it. It's been nice for me as well to get back to jumping a bit, although, I can tell I am rusty!

This past weekend, I took part in a Poker ride with JB. It would be the last ride I got in before JB would have to switch gears to his other job, breeding stallion. Two mares were arriving Saturday evening.
When I pulled in to the parking area for the ride, I was wondering if I had made the right decision in bringing JB. Over the last few years, I have been attending these poker rides regularly to help support the Foys to Blacktail Trail Project but usually, Tom and another familiar horse are along for support. This time, we were flying solo but I was meeting a friend with her horse who was relatively quiet.

These rides have always had a good turnout but this time? I had never seen such a turnout of trailers. There were horses and people running here everywhere you looked. The energy in the air could be cut with a knife. There were trailers from Nevada, California, and even North Carolina. Deep breath.. This is good experience for both of us to deal with in preparation for large endurance ride turnouts, I though to myself. Nothing we can’t handle , right?

I found a parking spot right next to the friend I was meeting and unloaded JB. He let out a few whinnies to see if there were any girls around.. Well, I suppose he IS a stallion and it IS springtime…Guess that is to be expected. Overall, he was more interested with the knee high green grass. I let him graze for a few minutes and then tied him to the trailer so I could saddle him. He was well behaved. The lady I would be riding with was riding a mare but luckily, the mare was just out of her cycle last week! With JB saddled, easy boots strapped on , I finished a bottle of cold water, bug sprayed both JB and myself and headed out. I realized I forgot my camera..again.. so no photos.. (I really have to get better about that)

These annual rides always have their fare share of "yay-hoo’s" attending since they are open to the general public. You never know who will show up. As a result, I always try to find a “ pocket” in the crowd and stay there. Last fall, three people got bucked off before they even made it to the trail head. Elise and I were successful in finding our pocket, but only after having to pass a large crowd first. The first few miles were uphill and JB was feeling full of energy. The first mile of the trail was uphill and rocky but the boots seemed to be doing well for him.

The first couple of card stops were a little tricky as everyone tended to bunch up. With a stallion, the last thing I want is to be crowded around so I always try to hang way back. I have found that generally, one can’t rely on the other riders to keep their own horses safe.
We arrived at the half way point and I was anxious to get off and stretch my legs. I was drawing a bad hand anyways. ( I never have done well in gambling or card playing) I jumped off, loosened the girth and let JB graze for a bit. I chit chatted with a few familiar faces who all inquired as to how JB was doing this year , if we had sorted out his hoof issues and the array of questions about what we did to solve the issues. Lots of questions about the easy boots as there aren't alot of people that use them here. Ofcourse, he also got his usual array of compliments on how well behaved he was and he even managed to sweet talk a few suckers out of a treat or two.

After about a 10 minute break, we mounted up and headed out, another ½ uphill pull. Then a long gradual downhill ride back to the parking lot. Along the way, someone's treat bag or pocket must have had a hole in it because suddenly we were on a magical trail with baby carrots along the way. JB couldn't believe the luck!! JB gobbled them up as we went and now he is wondering when we can go on another ride with a magical trail.

All things were going well. We had one last card stop and this was the only time during the entire ride that we had a bit of an issue. I had gotten my final card and had stepped aside while I waited for Elise to make her way through the pack of riders. As I was waiting, there was another rider who was on a Jenny . We had passed them earlier and ever since, much to my irritation , had been riding right on our tail. The rider would allow his Jenny to get her nose practically right under JB’s tail. I finally turned around and asked him , politely, to give us a little space. JB, bless his heart, never offered to kick, although that would have been my preference at the time! Anyways, I was waiting for Elise, like I said, minding my own business when mule rider shows up again. JB nickered to the mule again and I turned to face him to other way and get after him for talking…For WHATEVER reason, this particular individual on this Jenny decided that it might be cute to let his mule come over and “get to know “ JB . He walked her right over to have her go nose to nose with JB. I was able to veer that off before we had a situation. At this point, I had lost my patience with this rider so I proceeded to say that it was absolutely not ok to do that with a stallion. His response was “oh really, even though it’s a mule?” Apparently he thought it would be ok because it was a mule. I wish someone could explain that one to me!! UUGGGHHHHH!!

So , that once incident aside, we had a great ride. I couldn’t have asked JB to be much better. He walked out very well and had plenty of energy when we finished the ride. (Must have been those baby carrots!) We finished 9 miles of the ride in about an hour and 38 minutes. Better yet, no rubbing with the easy boots.

The mares arrived late Saturday night and ever since JB has switched to his other job. That makes riding him fairly unproductive which makes me a little sour. This particular breeding was a deal that dear husband made, a deal that I wasn't too keen on but sometimes you choose your battles....

Once the mares are bred and settled, hopefully by the end of the this week, JB will be getting gelded. It’s a decision I have been bantering with for some time and have finally decided it’s the right thing to do at this point. Honestly, I can’t wait. The management of our 5 head will become that much easier and better yet, no more husband horse deals… I better go and make that appointment!!

The Stars Might Be Aligning

My weekend did not include much riding at all. Unfortunately, Saturday required me to go into work so I couldn’t ride but Tom did ride him for me and spent quite a bit of time cantering. His only comment later that day when I arrived home was that JB needed a lot of canter work. JB tends to be fairly tense in the canter yet. We didn’t do a lot of cantering last year and so part of it is that he is unsure and has not developed the balance to canter easily. The other issue on Saturday was that there were three other strange horses in the arena at the same time. Archery friends had come over to use our arena that day and JB was much more interested in socializing than working.
Sunday, I was not feeling well but dragged myself out to the round pen, JB in tow with my syrcingle and long lines. Not having the energy to ride, I thought it might be a good opportunity to work on the canter without the added weight and burden of a rider. It has been quite some time since I had him in lines but he remembered quickly and listened quite well to voice commands as I took him up and down through walk/trot/canter/halt . He offered a couple of nice easy canters that I was very happy with. Last year, I couldn’t get him to canter on the lines for anything so I was pleased that he willingly went into that gait. After about 20 minutes of long lining I changed gears and revisited the “bowing” cue. I came prepared with baby carrots in my pocket which he smelled right away so it was a bit distracting for him initially.

“You mean I have to do something to earn the carrots?”

We are only at the very beginning stages of this trick but using his halter and leadrope, I tap his shoulder, then ask for him to pick up his hoof and with the other hand with the lead rope, ask him to rock back on his haunches. As he rocks back, I reward that by offering him a treat and letting him have his leg back so he can stand up again. As we go along, eventually I build up to where I don’t release and offer the treat until he rocks back far enough so that his knee rests on the ground. As soon as he offers that, then I release... and more carrots…The next step is getting him to stay in that bowed position a bit longer each time.
As we revisited this, JB quickly caught on. Last summer we left off where he was just starting to drop his knee on the ground. Pretty soon, when I tapped his shoulder, he picked up his foot and was willingly rocking back to put his knee on the ground. Almost too fast and leaving me behind a bit! We only did it a few times and I decided since he was doing so well , I didn’t want to wear it out so I called it good for the day. I have read with trick training that you can over due it as well so I definitely wanted to avoid that. I was pleased with how quickly it came back to him. I had also started teaching JB the cue for the Spanish walk last year but that was a little more difficult. We were both frustrated so I stopped until I could figure out how to better execute the cue. I hope to revisit that however so if anyone has any pointers please let me know!!
While I do miss the focus of the endurance training and conditioning, I am really enjoying my new direction with JB for this season. Much more that I thought I would. It’s nice not to have to feel like such a task master with him, no more stress of “I have to do blank # of miles this week . Now, I just catch him JB a few times a week and head out to the arena or round pen to do what ever needs doing. I try to listen and let him tell me what we work on for that day. Sometimes, we just walk around and work on some easy bending because he is tense, or bothered because the wind blew his hair sideways that day. Some days, we work around obstacles, the Garrocha or trot poles. Other days we get down to business and I ask for more, with transitions, leg yields, shoulder-ion and more cantering to help him build the strength and confidence to travel in this gait comfortably. My point is that whatever it is for each day, we work through it together. If it takes us an hour to get a nice soft up transition into a trot, then that's okay.
Initially when I opted to take a step back and focus on getting him “right” before getting him “out”, I felt like it was a step backwards. Now that I have had some time to reflect and have started seeing some of the changes he is making, I can see that it has definitely been the right decision for him and us. I suspect by next year, we will be miles ahead of where we would have been if I just kept the focus on conditioning. While I enjoyed being out there conditioning and fulfilling my dream and my goals, I really don’t think JB ever did. I didn't want that. He wasn’t mentally or physically ready for the endurance conditioning last year and I probably shouldn't have pushed him.
With our less strenuous training schedule this year, a trail ride or ride out down the road doesn’t have to feel like a chore anymore and JB seems much happier as a result. Everything feels right, moreso than things ever did last year. I can't describe it really, and sometimes there are no words. It just seems like JB is happy, he looks good, he feels good and that makes me happy. I don't know if its just the stars have finally aligned for us but I am seeing a lot of potential in this little horse that I would not otherwise have if I didn’t give JB the opportunity to show me. I am just glad I finally listened to him.

Finally out on the Trail

This weekend, Tom and I finally got out on the trail for some trail time and an opportunity to really put the easy boots to the test for JB. For the last several weeks, I have been slowly limbering Rebel and JB up in the arena, both physically and mentally. We have done a lot of ground work, a lot of work on laterals, bending, flexing, garrocha, ground poles, etc.
To start the weekend, I did a short 4 .5 mile ride on Saturday from home with Rebel, which went really well, but on Sunday we headed out to the State land for some real mileage with Rebel and JB . I lost the dime toss on who got to ride JB , so I rode Rebel which was fine. Rebel and I have done many miles over the years on some less than safe rugged mountain trails. He is an excellent trail horse, and it was nice to be on my old standby ! We hit several hills along the way and then got off the trail into some thick timber. This was where I was really glad to be riding Rebel. JB hasn’t completely sorted out the idea of slowing down in tricky footing, like blown down timber, to pick his way through. He kind of stumbles and trips his way, trying to rush. Tom let him trip and stumble until eventually, JB started to figure it out. Eventually a horse will get tired of whacking his cannon bone and tripping in most cases. Pretty soon, JB was paying a little better attention and was actually looking at where he was placing his feet instead of just rushing through everything. Tom is much more patient with this process than me. I tend to try to help the horse too much, which in this case, doesn’t solving anything. The horse has to be allowed the opportunity to figure this kind of thing out on their own if they are to ever be good on the trail. After about a half hour of riding through this tricky footing, along with snow, we found our way back onto a 2 track trail. I think the horse were just as relieved as we were to be done bush whacking. Good experience for the horses but not always fun for the rider. The rest of the ride went pretty well for both horses. JB actually walked out ahead of Rebel for most of the ride, which is a notable improvement. I was rather impressed with JB’s energy level through out the ride. In many cases, we stopped to let the horses rest for a minute and JB would paw, anxious to keep going. He was looking out ahead on the trail, setting the healthy pace. JB’s is showing a lot of improvement in his willingness to move out now that his feet are feeling better, however, we have been trying to sort out a newly developed overreaching issue over the last few weeks.
The few rides I have actually taken JB on since he has started wearing boots have been limited to the busy gravel roads around our place. Every time we tried to trot, he would clip the buckle on the hind with his front hoof and it would come undone. The issue seemed to be worse on the right side. I even tried Cotter pins and those ended up getting broken every time. As a result, our rides had to be cut short because I spent more time stopping to rebuckle and readjust the hind boots than anything else. Wearing the boots was now creating it’s own unique set of challenges for us. The overreaching issue damaged the back of the front boots to the point that I now have to get new gaiters for the fronts. The over reaching was making JB alter his gait to avoid the contact and that was the last thing I wanted him to do. About a week ago, I had hind shoes with pads put on JB in an effort to resolve this new dilemna. My farrier that I use for special issues thought this should do the trick.. I had nothing to lose at this point.

Sundays ride was really the first time we had taken JB out on a real trail with the boots on the front and the hinds in shoes and pads. It seems he is still over reaching and tearing up the back of his front boots, although it is less. If we can’t sort this out, I may have to put JB in shoes and pads on the front as well and then he’ll have to wear bell boots to protect the bulbs of his heels.
We arrived back at the trailer after a little over 2.0 hrs of steady riding, half of it being up and down hills or over difficult footing. Tom stated that JB felt, energy wise, that he could easily do another couple hours. That was music to my ears. JB looked like he felt pretty good as well. He had barely worked up a sweat. Over reaching asside, JB was still looking fresh. Rebel, on the other hand was whipped. He was rather lathered up and was obviously tired. Ofcourse, he is older and completely out of shape. His heart rate came down within about 10 minutes. I expect conditioning with him will be a different process.

With all of the hurdles we have endured with JB over the winter and to now be presented with yet another challenge , I have had to rethink some things. I have to take a step back, or sideways rather, with JB for the season. We have made some great improvement in getting JB’s feet feeling better, no doubt, but with the emergence of yet another issue ( over reaching) I have to wonder if development is causing some of this. Although JB is 7 years old this year, it seems as though JB has just now, this year, reached a level of physical maturity that now defines him as a full grown horse as opposed to a colt. JB looks mature this year whereas last year he still looked coltish. I was comparing some photos and it was only last summer that JB noticeably increased his bone. As the breeder at Quien Sabe warned me, these horses are slow to mature. I may have underestimated just how slow.
As much as I want to do endurance on JB, I have to think about his well being. If he is just coming together, a time to refocus might be the best thing in the world for him right now and will set the foundation for a stronger endurance prospect later on. My plan is to work mostly on various dressage excercises, do a little jumping, let Tom work on horseback archery with him, and of course continue to take a trail ride or two a week as a break from the arena , with no actual goal of training for a race this season.
Depending on what JB shows me over the next several weeks , maybe we can do a limited distance later in the season co but I will let his progress make that determination. There’s always next year and with any luck, he will come out better, stonger and much more ready to handle the strains of conditioning for endurance next spring.

So that begs the question? What will I do for endurance prospect? JB will still take up a lot of my time but for the rest of it, I will focus my energy on getting Rebel ready for the June Blacktail Mountain Classic ride. From there, we'll see what happens. I mentioned in an earlier post about finally following through on a promise I made to myself and Rebel many years ago. I told you I planned to make good on that promise. Looks like 2009 might just be Rebels year to shine.

The Lion and the Lamb Phenomenon

They say March is usually "In like a Lion , Out like a Lamb" in this area but mothernature is throwing us a curveball. It' s more like in like a Lion and out like a grumpy, hungry , just out of hibernation Grizzly Bear! We have had snow and winter weather advisories all week and it is to continue through the end of the week. The weekend looks promising however, climbing all the way up to the mid to high 4o's. I am keeping my fingers crossed that we will begin to pull out of this winter like weather trend very soon. This week , as a result of the weather combined with working 12 hour days , is a wash as far as conditioning goes, which has me a bit grumpy. However, there is an end in sight.
Thanks to a wonderful boss who is willing to make some exceptions for me, she approved me to work short days twice a week. This week was suppose to begin those abbreviated work weeks through the ride season but with things at work, that may get delayed until the end of April which is fine given the weather forecast !( maybe the weather is cooperating on my account afterall since I can't start the schedule yet.) This schedule opens up a number of doors for my summer and helps ease the job fatigue I have been struggling with of late.
That being said, I will have quite a bit of time to pursue not only a heavy conditioning schedule for endurance, but more training time with the other horses and maybe I will be nice and get restarted on groundwork with Brego for Tom. Brego really needs it! I hope to also use this extra time to do some other things like enjoying some of Montana’s great outdoors, hiking, kayaking, and gardening, which I love but never have the time for. The best part about all of this is that I won’t have to fret as much about when I can fit in conditioning rides when there is laundry, house cleaning, grocery shopping, meals to cook and all those other nagging chores that need to be done. Last year, I was run ragged with everything that needed to get done when I started the conditioning program with JB and trying to balance that with working 50+ hrs a week. This schedule will be a big relief.

So, being curious by nature, how does everyone else manage their work schedule with conditioning for endurance and balancing all the other aspects of life? Anyone have any secrets they would like to share?

Being a Leader during Difficult Moments

You ever have those rides that make you think “why I am subjecting myself to this”?

Last night’s ride proved to be less than what I would consider fun. It was a beautiful clear evening and the sun was shining but it was cold. After a stressful day at work, I was looking forward to riding. JB was busting at the seams with energy and before we even got out of the driveway, I could tell there was a storm brewing in him. JB was less then pleased to go out right around dinner time, but he had hay in front of him most of the day so we weren’t exactly heading out on an empty stomach. Beet pulp makes JB kookoo for cocoa puffs because he just loves it.
As we fish tailed down the road for the 1st half mile in pleasant bone jarring jog/walk, I finally let him trot out. Let him burn off some energy. The fishtailing or ping ponging as I call it, continued. It is a direct result of his mind being back at home and him trying to get turned around to go back home. This is nothing new with him. Frustrating as all get out, but usually manageable. Part of this is related to the herd issues that come with riding a stallion and part of it is that we have some relationship issues to sort out as far as leadership. JB has a very busy mind and keeping his mind with me and the task at hand has been our ongoing trouble spot. Unfortunately, his mind is usually several steps ahead of me.
We bee bopped down the road in a tense trot. He was not thinking forward and therefore his feet were not moving forward.

..."If you can direct the thought, the feet will follow "... I reminded myself… Words of wisdom from the clinician Harry Whitney who I would trust with my horses life. Unfortunately, I wasn’t having much success in directing the thought. I added a little squeeze with my leg with each pushing off stride with his hind feet to encourage a lengthened trot and he would blast forward. I then gave a little squeeze on the rein to half halt and ask him to slow, engage from the hind and come onto the bit some. This give and take pattern continued and I was slowly making progress for brief moments. Ok... We can build on brief moments I thought.
Right about that time, I hear a “clank” of metal and then the sound of the buckle on the boot flopping with each step he made. He managed to catch his front right boot with his hind right boot. We have been having this over reaching problem on his right side since his feet are feeling better . To try to resolve this, I have started using cotter pins with the hind boots to keep him from kicking the buckle loose. Well, some how he kicked the cotter pin right out or it broke and the cotter pin disappeared somewhere into the ditch. No use searching for it. I had brought two extras just in case, thankfully.

I hopped off to get things back in order so we could finish our ride and every fiber in my body screamed “go home , have a glass of wine and call it a day”.

In order to recalp the boot and put in another cotter pin, JB would need to stand still and wait patiently. JB had other ideas. He thought this moment would be an opportune time to play ring around the rosy or something. Every time I would step towards his hind end or bend over to grab his foot , he would step his hind quarters away from me at Mach chicken speed and try to head in direction we just came from . Home.
This went of for several minutes and the situation was deteriorating quickly. He offered to rear and at the same time, did what I call a sunfish. As he reared, he turns his neck and head to the opposite direction of where I am standing and pulls away from me. I feared he would succeed and get away from my hold. Then we would really have a problem. He would have to cross a main road and stood a good chance of getting hit. During this fit he was apparently having, he also managed to kick me during one of my attempt to get a hold of his leg. He caught the outside of my lower left leg. These barbs have very fast little feet.!! Thank god he had boots on otherwise it would have been worse. I realized the kick was out of frustration that I wasn’t letting him go where he wanted. It was a hard enough kick that I developed a good sized hematoma by late last night but really didn’t feel much pain at the time, I supposed due to the adrenalin pumping through me.
I realized I needed to change the program because we weren’t getting anywhere. He was not going to stand quietly for me so I could do what I needed to and we certainly couldn't go on with a flopping boot. For whatever reason, JB was well into meltdown mode like I have never seen before with him.
Standing still for JB has always been difficult. It has a lot to do with his busy mind. When I first started JB, he didn’t want to stand still to have the saddle put on him and would run around in a circle. Harry worked with me on this in a clinic a couple years back. He taught me that a horses feet are nothing more than a means to get his body to where his brain is. JB’s brain was back at home. His feet were moving because he wanted to get home. When a horse is not wanting to stand quietly, our first reaction is to keep trying to make them stop their feet to stand still by popping the lead rope. The feet are secondary. It’s the mind I had to get back and the feet will come.
So, not having a safe area to really work this through (busy gravel road) I had to be thoughtful about my approach to keep JB safe while getting him to change his thought about going home. Instead of focusing on trying to make him stop moving his feet, I allowed him to move his feet but the key point here is that I directed his feet…. in a circle around me. It started out as a pretty furious paced circle, a speed JB was choosing. He was still tense, his head was still held high but I wasn’t sending him around at that speed. An important piece that I want to emphasize is that as he was choosing the pace.My role was to allow that but direct the feet and then offer him a good deal to slow down, to show him that it would be a lot less work to choose to stay with me mentally and physically than try to leave. He was still pretty focused on getting home as he went around me. I am pretty sure that he thought that if he could run around the circle fast enough, he might just be able to launch himself home. Every time he made it to the south side of the circle, he was looking hard to the outside (toward home). He was also pulling on me. Guess he figured that since the launching wasn’t working, maybe he could just drag me home. At this point, in the round pen, I would usually do something to interrupt his thought .In this case since I could see he was mentally checking out, I took my stirrup fender and snapped it, timing it with his pulling on me and looking away, to bring his mind back to what we had going on. It's sort of like saying.. "HELLO, I am right here... pay attention..." In the round pen I might have used my flag or even done a cartwheel to get his attention (really, I have done that) You could do other things too I suppose to capture their attention but being that he was on a line ,I had limited options and the leather was easy to grab. I knew it would be enough to get him to think something different anything but than leaving, even if his mind drifted to something else. I was trying to direct his thought, hoping eventually I could bring it back to me.
Sounds easy enough right? Unfortunatley, the next thing is a crucial point and can be a bit tricky. Watching for the smallest sign that he had a change of thought, even for a passing second. That would be the exact time he would need a reward. After a couple of times of snapping the fender, he finally said… “WHAT IN THE WORLD IS IT THAT YOU WANT LADY??”

AHA!!! His ear flicked and his inside eye actually made contact to the inside of the circle, I had him . Finally he was asking the question I wanted to answer for him.

I said, “Well, dear son, I would sure like it if you would slow down a bit and be here a moment with me”.

I consciously made my body language into quiet relaxed stance (without looking suspicious) I let out a deep breath and talked in a quieter voice to him. I slowed my pace and he slowed, just a bit. I gave a small bump on the lead to cue him to slow more, now that he was paying some attention. He responded with “ BUT I REALLY WANT TO GO HOME “

And I said, “ Yes, I know and we will go home, but we are going to have to go home together”.

After a bit of this discussion and give and take, he walked. I continued to talk and stay quiet and asked him to come around me with a nice bend which slowed him more . As he bends through the jaw, that released his entire top line and he came around the circle with the nicest bend that went from head to tail. He was finally letting go , let out a huge sigh and he finally said, “ WELL , THERE YOU ARE, I WAS LOOKING FOR YOU! I FEEL SO MUCH BETTER"

Usually when he gets here, he begins to yawn repeatedly and tt’s at this point, he is ready to move on. Lesson over. I will mention that just because it worked and I was able to get him back, that doesn’t mean he will stay there with me mentally. Given his state of mind, it was a real possibility that I may lose him again. Nonetheless, JB finally stood quietly and I was able to latch his buckle down and insert the new cotter pin. Mission accomplished, for now. I hopped on and off we went.
We now kept on in the direction we were headed. I had another mile before our turn around point. I suppose I could have turned around right then and everything would have gone fine. I wasn’t worried about sending the wrong message to JB had I turned around. I just wanted to ride a bit with him engaged so well. JB happily walked out and was looking ahead. No more weaving or ping ponging. What a relief. Right about then , there was a lady coming toward us walking her dog and then behind her about a half mile was a group of about 8 bicycle riders coming down the road. I may have made a mistake by continuing!! Well , I got him past the lady with only minor concerns but when JB spotted what was coming at him next, his body filled with tension, his head popped up and I could feel his heart pounding. Here we go again I thought. He wanted to turn and run and frankly so did I. I had to remain calm and be ready for whatever was about to unfold, while trying to keep JB as calm as possible. The bikers must have sensed that JB was nervous by his body language and were nice enough to slow up and talk as they passed, which sometimes helps. I have had other horses balk at bikes and have found that if you can get the bikers talking (which can be hard sometimes) a horse usually can recognize that bikers are people with really weird legs if the biker talks. Not this time. Today, it was too much. JB lost it. He spun around and tried to bolt. In one HUGE leap, we landed with all four feet in the ditch which probably saved us. The ditch was full of about 3 feet of snow. It kind of hobbled his momentum , atleast enough for him to stop and think about something else other than the bikers. By now the bikers were past and looking back at us, probably glad that they were on the bikes and not on this horse. He jumped up out of the ditch and we carried on. But, interestingly enough, he didn’t stay bothered. He just resumed a nice steady walk. Maybe our earlier lesson stuck?
We made it to our turn around a point and I even went a little further. He had settled down quite a bit. By now things were calm enough I was feeling the pain in my leg and apparently he had also jerked on me e hard enough that my middle back was also aching. Twisting to turn around and look behind us (to be proactive with oncoming vehicles) was rather difficult. We managed to get home without any more major issues. I unbooted, unsaddled , brushed him off and gave him his beet pulp. I went in for the evening, glad to have arrived with both of us safe but was left thinking about a few things.
JB’s a stallion and no matter how well behaved he has the ability to be, it will always require me to handle things a little differently than I would with a gelding or a mare. Tonight was a very good display of how JB can turn on the pressure because he doesn’t want to follow my lead. The dominance can come on strong. He did everything he knew to try to get away from the perceived pressure, which was to travel down the road with me and be away from his herd.
As I work toward being his leader that he will happily go along with, there may be some times when I have to step out of my comfort zone. Last night I had to be careful since I was out there in the open, my priority was to keep him safe. If I were in a round pen, I may have handled things a bit different. When JB gets “big” and displays behavior like rearing, kicking and these sorts of things, it is no longer only about being his leader, its about safety. Had we been in a round pen, and he had reared, I would have come in alot bigger as soon as he turned up the pressure (rearing) to meet his pressure. Why? To establish those boundaries of what is ok and what is not okay. Establishing clear boundaries and rewarding at the right time is a crucial part of working with any horse , but it seems moreso with a stallion. Last night, I had to choose my battles he may try this again. With any luck, we will have a few things better established if and when it does.
Now that JB’s feet are feeling better, it's pretty clear that he is showing me some things I hadn’t seen before. Being full of spring testosterone I suppose the desire to be the dominant force is playing into the cards. He is testing those lines with me. Last night, his very strong self-preservation instinct was in the "on" position and he wanted the comfort of his herd. He wasn't too keen on my ideas of going out for a ride and so he tried to go over , around and run away from that idea.The hardest part about all of this? Remembering it’s not personal and keeping the emotion out of it. It’s hard to keep yourself calm and not get angry in these situations. Were not there yet, but I am not giving up. We have way too much to do together.