Are your dues Paid??

For those of you out there still procrastinating, (like I was) on getting your AERC membership renewed.. GET TO IT..I finally did.


AERC continues to struggle to hold onto membership during the ongoing difficult economy, it's a small fee for the services they provide us. They need us and we need them to continue doing our sport that we all love. So go renew.. DON"T WAIT!! Its easy too. Just go online and in 5 minutes, you can have it done!
(ok, that's the extent of my sales pitch)

Have a great day!

1st Ride of 2012

With unseasonably warm weather and no snow, I have hopped on Maggie a few times this winter. I am thrilled that we have had such mild weather. No ice, no snow and temps that are, well, unheard of for December and January in Montana. Last Monday was our first official ride of 2012. Quickly growing bored with riding around the pasture and arena, which was a little slippery due to the skiff of frozen rain from the night before, to do any trotting work, we ventured on up the road..the sun was shining and the mercury was pushing 46 degrees...I was feeling good and it wasn't too long that I realized Maggie was also feelling just as good. We made it about a half a mile from home and she suddenly realized "uh oh, I am out here all alone". We zigged, bobbed, and crow hopped our way up to the hill and I decided it might be a good idea to go home. Now I know what your thinking, but I didn't go home and put her up... no, no, no. We turned around and just as she thought she was off the hook, we trotted right on by our driveway and kept on truckin', right to the end of the gravel road that we live on. At the end of the road is a cul-de-sac, perfect for working a horse in a generous circle. We spent the better part of 20 minutes working at a trot in a circle, changes of directions, half circles, serpentines , spiral ins and spiral outs. Maggie has the coat of mammoth right now so when she gave me a few nice bends and leg yeilds without kicking at my stirrups, we quit. We will try to venture out alone away from home again, weather permitting. My suspicion is that I will have a few repeats of this episode but if that is what it takes, fine.
Maggie didn't see much of the trail last year. I am hoping that 2012 will be a better year and we can get back to a conditioning schedule. Our biggest challenge once again, is the distance from where I live to where any rides are held. I hope to find a way to attend atleast a couple of limited distance rides.

Good thing come in Furry Packages

About a year ago, I had to say goodbye to my good friend, Munci. It was heart wrenching. For 12 years, we were inseparable, best buddies. He saw me through a lot of life ; 3 moves, numerous jobs, bad decisions, and miles upon miles of trails , both tagging along behind the horses or at my side for a hike or run. He was my chore buddy, my nurse when I was sick , my guard dog when I was threatened and my best friend. He withstood a brutal attack from a Mastiff to keep me safe. We spent some of our best days together chasing rocks and minnows along many Montana rivers and lakes, In the end he developed lung cancer. Always a stoic being, he hid any symptoms that he was sick. We didn’t know until it was so far gone there was nothing we could have done. I only had a few days and our time together quickly came to an end.
The topic of getting another dog has come up a lot lately but a subject I tended to shy away from. The thought of another dog was more than I was ready for. The thought of a puppy was even more alarming! Losing one dog is hard enough but we had actually lost three dogs with a year and half time. We both missed all of them terribly but for me, I decided that when the time was right for another dog, a dog would find me, just like Munci did.
Things have a funny way of working out but through a series of events and happenstance networking, we were put in contact with a German Shepherd rescue facility about 3.5 hours from home, which also happened to be 5 minutes from friends of ours who we happened to be planning to go visit on December 23rd, which just happened to be one year to the day of losing Munci. Life is so weird sometimes.

German Shepherds have always been my first choice in dogs (grew up with them) and I always thought that someday I might like to get another one.. just not now. Nonetheless, since we were going to be in the vicinity anyways, I was convinced that I should go have a look, meet the lady that ran the rescue and just "see". Tom threw the doggie travel crate in the car when I wasn’t looking.…hmmmm.

Well, here is what we came home with. Meet Xena (my Warrior Princess).

She 18 months old and has a little history. She grew up with a family but had to be given up due to employment difficulties. She was then adopted out to another family but it didn’t work out due to allergies. As a result, she has some anxiety as she has been bounced around a little. Who wouldn't? German Shepherds are generally one person /family dogs that bond very closely. She seemed to take to Tom and myself pretty quickly during our visit. I guess the deal was sealed upon seeing that. She knows her basics and has a sweet temperament. She needs some doggie socialization time but otherwise, her worst habit is jumping on poeple when she wants to play. She isn't a chewer , shows no signs of separation anxiety, and not a barker. She isn't sure about the cat yet but she hasn't shown any aggression either. The horses were totally new to her but she is quickly getting into the chore routine. It seems her biggest downfall is that she just hasn't been exposed to much in life. We'll change that!!

In just the few short days we have had her, she has definitely filled a void in our lives that I didn’t want to accept was missing.
Yah, I am a little smitten…

Welcome home Xena.

Short Horse Story

Here it is again, weeks and weeks with no posting. Yes, it’s ridiculous. I know. (hanging head)
Compared to last year at this time, we are enjoying a non-winter – winter (if there is such a thing) thus far!

Well,okay, not completely…
It has been cold but we have nothing more than a skiff of snow on the ground which means I have been able to ride a bit more. Maggie is quite plump. We.. I mean , I, have practicing the best technique of how to get on a round horse with a fluffy slippery coat. I swear one of the other horses has gotten a hold of my show sheen and is wiping Maggie’s back down with it when I am not home. What the hell is with her slippery coat!! (yes, it's a sign of a healthy horse I suppose but seriously??) It’s requiring some athletic capabilities on my part in order to get on without sliding the saddle over. Maggie gets pretty irritated about the whole thing and has actually walked over to the mounting block as if to say "please.. just use this .." Yes, I could always use the mounting block and some days I do but I think I just like the challenge of. I almost have it down to a science! Maybe I will do a little write up on details of the "How To's" and yes, there is actually a technique involved!

Maggie has also been perfecting her Houdini acts and has the "getting into places where she shouldn’t" be down to an art. I guess the allure of the compost heap full of rotting hay , chicken and horse manure was too much for her stomach to ignore any longer?? Sans electric fence. Getting in is one thing, the getting out she hasn’t really perfected yet, much to my fencing’s demise. When she first started her latest antics, she patiently waited until someone came home and rescued her. We would unplug the fence, un string the wire and release her from her confines. Well, the last time, it was Tom that got home first and ultimately had to deal with her. I am just guessing but I would imagine he cussed a blue streak all the way out to her and back and called her a few choice names in the process. But ever since, things went back to normal again. Maggie stayed out of the area. I figured she probably grew bored with the whole routine and realized there wasn’t anything worth eating in there anymore. Perfect! We were done with finding her stuck somewhere she shouldn’t be and I didn't have to worry about her getting into bad hay.

I am not exactly sure what happened after that because two days later, we came home to find the entire perimeter fencing of the compost heap saggingm ripped and two of the poles(cheap temporary plastic ones) broken right off and , as if to add insult to injury, Maggie and Cassidy were contently standing on top of the immaculately groomed grassy knoll that serves as Tom’s archery stop, which is also .. correction.. WAS fenced off . More wire fence busted. 12 degree weather…( I LOVE this mare, really...)

As if that weren’t quite enough, as we walked into the pasture, brother and sister took off, leaping off the mound (quite impressively I might add)and kicking up fairly large clods of sod as they went.. of which one landed at promptly at Tom’s feet.
Do you suppose they planned that part??

I didn’t want to look at Tom at that moment because he surely had to have steam rolling out of his ears by now…after a few seconds, as Maggie and Cassidy did what I presume was a Victory lap, I couldn’t help but start laughing hysterically at the whole thing. It was as if Maggie gave him the middle hoof… !!

I figure Maggie decided at some point in all this that she was pretty offended at what Tom called her just days before. I guess she got the last laugh and I will be fixing the missing hoof clumps on the arrow mound.

Bored horses… I may not have a fence left on the place by spring..

Catching Up...

Wow, it’s been a while. I have really fallen off the social media and horses scene. It just seems that there hasn’t been enough free moments that allow me to take time to post anything or even catch up on anyone else’s blogs.

I’ll take my chances and assume there are a few of you wondering and possibly still curious about things here at Acer Farm, so let me try to catch you up. In fact it shouldn’t be too hard.

Since late July I think I went 7 weeks, without riding a horse. In fact, other than feed them and gaze upon them in the pasture, I don’t even think I had one piece of clothing with horse hair on it.. and that’s not because I was ultra careful around them.. I just didn’t get around them much in order to get horse hair on me…
Life has been busy and there are many reasons I took a break from the horses. I guess in retrospect, I needed the break in order to take care of some other things I had been neglecting. Sometimes, you have to come up for air. The important point is that things are slowly getting back on track and I am hoping to pick up the pieces with my horses.
Two weeks ago I dusted off my Duett, found JB’s girth and bridle, (buried behind loads of other tack ) and loaded JB up to take our first trail ride since the accident. JB did very well and seemed to enjoy a chance to see something new. He has some difficulty going downhill, I suppose due to the rigidity of the joint now, but otherwise, he did great. He's slow and careful. We poked along at a walk for about an hour. Tom was along with his horse and patiently waited for us when we lagged behind. It seems JB is officially a pleasure trail horse. He’s been sporting a set of natural balance aluminum shoes since early July which helps support his sole and help him break the right foot over more quickly. The dynamics of how he travels with his new “bionic” pastern joint foot lends itself to needing corrective shoeing. I had hoped he might be okay with continued barefoot trimming but so far, he does better with the shoes. That may change in time but that is what he needs for now.

Maggie is an embarrassment. She is back to her “barrel” with 4 legs figure. She is about 75 lbs overweight and sassy as ever. Her daily exercise routine these days equates to running to the water trough and then galloping as fast she can back to her hay pile for fear that she might miss a few bites. (Yes, I purposefully feed her as far away from the water tank as possible… I figure atleast it’s some sort of activity and it provides me with entertainment of watching her run). Actually I did take her for a 5 mile ride this past weekend. She started off really quiet and happily walking along behind Tom and his colt. Unfortunately that didn’t last too long. Tom’s colt decided that a deer was the closest thing he had seen to a horse eating monster and spooked, which startled Maggie, which then seemed to set the tone for the next hour. Maggie mostly quieted back down but the “hurry” in her feet kept showing up, requiring many “training” moments… Oh well, what could I have really expected after not riding her in weeks and weeks? We finished on a good note and she got into her big flat footed, head bobbing walk that most horses twice her size can’t hold a candle to … as long as she was walking, I was leaving it alone!!

The days have gotten shorter and cooler so sadly, most of the good riding weather season is behind me, which is just typical. I finally get myself back into a riding frame of mind right about the time that riding becomes almost impossible.

The garden really took off in July. We have been busy in the last couple of weeks harvesting our bounty. Its been fun and challening. The last time I had a garden I was in high school. The food dryer has been running full time drying bags of apples, plums, tomatoes, strawberries and peppers and proven to have been a sound investment. I still have a few squash to pull and the cold season veggies like carrots, parsnip, beets, and spinach are going strong. Next year, we need to get cold frames built.

The chickens are laying eggs daily and the two young roosters we inherited from a friend are developing their crow… lucky us…

So , that’s the latest and greatest. I am hoping I will get back to some blog lurking again and with any luck , more time in the saddle this month.

Keep your fingers crossed the weather holds just a bit longer.

Bracing the Sails

In my last post, I posted that Endurance just wasn’t in the cards this year for Maggie and I. Our slow start into conditioning due to weather hindered any progress right from the get go. From there, it just seemed like it was one thing or another popping up that got in the way and my whole spring riding season kind of imploded on me. Any conditioning rides we did manage to get to, starting in late June, became nothing but a battle on the trail. Maggie was usually fine if I rode alone. I could keep her at a decent pace but add one other rider and the fight was on. I wasn’t having fun on the trail, Maggie was a terror and before I knew it, I was 3 weeks out from the only nearby ride on the schedule this year. I had planned to attend for months.

Fortunately for me, some of the most difficult decisions can be the easiest decisions when you look at the facts. The facts were that Maggie wasn’t even close to being ready, physically or mentally to complete a limited distance ride. So, I bagged plans to attend and , subsequently, resigned to the fact that everything endurance related in my life was just going to be on hold for now.

Disappointed ? Yes but also a sense of relief came with it. Hubby and I headed out shortly thereafter that decision for a vacation to Idaho and Oregon. During that week away, I decided that when we returned I would make plans to attend an upcoming Alice Trindle clinic for a weekend of private lessons for Maggie and I. Tom was also on the schedule for some lesson time with Alice to do Garocha work. The clinic was being hosted at a friend’s ranch about 3 hour’s away, so we had a place to stay.

I needed a new gust of air to fill my sails. I thought maybe this would do it. If nothing else, it would give me another fun weekend away.

The clinic began on Friday July 22 and we headed down that day. My ride time was Saturday afternoon.

The Training issues I wanted to address:
-Rushiness due to hyper sensitive to any leg pressure . Not able to get any effective responses with lateral work due to hypersensitivity.
-Tension when traveling counter clock wise, locking her back and jaw and pushing through her outside shoulder when doing circles in that direction
-At a halt, hind quarter release with leg pressure ; get Maggie to take just one step over when applying leg pressure as opposed to wanting to blast head or rear (when I tried to block her forward motion)
-Tension in Maggie creating me to brace my lower back which caused more tension in Maggie, which caused more tension in my lower back, which ……; well you get the picture.
-Getting her relaxed enough at a trot where she did not hold her breath.


Training Sessions at Home (what I had started doing)
-From the ground, ask Maggie to step a hind foot over, just one step in each direction without walking forward.
-Once she was accepting that, I would get on and purposefully move my legs around along her sides while walking , but not asking anything to get her to begin to differentiate between real leg pressure for a queue and the sensation of my leg touching her sides.
-Bending at a walk using lots of circles, serpentines, etc . Walk over ground rails, stop and back with a soft feel.
-Turn and change direction without speeding up in the turn.
-Different speeds at a walk, slow walk, faster walk, fastest walk and vice versa (Hurry does not Mean Worry)

Knowing that things fell apart in a trot, I kept our home sessions mostly at the walk (as maddening as it often became for me, it was what Maggie needed). .

The Goals for the clinic
-To get some further ideas and help in slowing Maggie down
-Figure out if what I have been asking is correct. What do I need to change?
-Learning to recognize when her braciness is a direct result of my braciness.
-Figure out how to help Maggie start putting less effort into fighting me and more effort into listening to me

The Lesson
Out in the middle of a large mowed hay field , an “arena “was marked off by 4 cones. I talked to Alice about my frustrations with Maggie and what we had been working on and what I had hoped to accomplish. We started out working at a walk and she had me bend Maggie around each cone at the corners. As I turned her around the cone, Alice wanted me to open up the inside rein way out(so traveling left, I would turn her by opening my left arm out and down towards the ground) She also had me over exaggerate my posture and weight distribution to the inside of the circle by leaning down and bit a forward, towards her shoulder and the ground (don’t know how to make that make sense any better than that ) as I was guiding Maggie around the cone. As I came out of the circle I would balance up and let Maggie follow my seat aid for a leg yield over to the straight line of the arena. At first, we were out of sync and Maggie was wondering why I was leaning and throwing her off balance but she was having to compensate and shift how she was moving. AHA! She was having to pay attention! I wasn’t really long before Maggie started slowing down and listening to me. Part of it was that it was something totally new, part of it was that I was putting her into a bit of physical bind , causing a mental change in her. Pretty soon, the whole picture started coming together, she softened around the cones and actually started following her nose, stepping under herself and as she came out of the circle , she started floating over to what would be the rail of the arena. I wasn’t having to apply unnecessary pressure with my leg. Instead, she was responding to the balancing up in my seat. After a bit, we lessened the exaggeration of the weight distribution and went back to correct posture and Maggie continued to listen well. So basically , we set it up so Maggie had to pay attention to me with exaggerated “not so good” posture. This little exercise threw a total wrench in things for us at first but it worked. We repeated this process at a trot. As expected it started out rough. Ofcourse I got bracey with my lower back and as you can imagine, so did Maggie. Once I settled in and started focusing on relaxing my back and seat, Maggie started working for me instead of against me. By the time the hour and half lesson was over, I had a horse who was trotting at a normal rhythm and pace, that I could easily sit to . I had a horse that was soft , able to bend, and driving from her hind end. It was lovely.

Key points:

-Insisting on a change of gait from Maggie when I asked her to slow, even if it means we momentarily break into a walk and her head comes up and she momentarily travels like a camel.
-As rough and uncomfortable as it can get, work through various speeds at the trot ; anywhere from slow as a peanut rolling Western pleasure trot to Maggie’s fast trot to a normal trot and vice versa. Let her trot big and fast for a lap , but then insist she come back down. All the while, mix it up with changes of direction, circles, serpentines, etc keep her guessing.
-Don’t let Maggie go too far in a straight line at this time
-Change speeds often- it may take a while to help Maggie sort out that she actually can travel at different speeds at my request.

So there you have it. In the spirit of sharing those not so great times that I know we all have in training our horses(but are all too often not mentioned amongst us!). Maybe it will encourage someone else out there struggling with their horse like I was, to take a step back and look at what their horse needs , instead of staying the course with our own goals.

A lot of what I took away from my time with Alice was similar to what I had already been working on but it really makes a difference to have someone else confirm what you think is the right thing and then getting to see a change in your horse as a result of getting a little instruction. Getting to feel what it feels like when things are good and not just guessing that it was right!

In the last couple of weeks since the clinic, Maggie and I have had some really nice arena sessions on our own.

I do believe our sails are braced and I can finally advance the ship in her course.

Realizations and Refocus

I should be packing and preparing to attend what would have been my first ride of the season this weekend, (yes, while the rest of you have already attended 5 or more already!) It’s a new ride this year in Potomac, Montana. A one day ride that offers both a limited distance of 35 and a 50 miler. Between weather, work, saddle fitting issues and a huge list of other bumps in the road, I never got into a conditioning schedule this year with Maggie. I have managed to get few good 10-12 mile rides under my belt but that was it. Any remaining delusion that I could have Maggie ready for the July 23rd ride was quickly decided for me a few weeks ago when I actually looked at the calendar , factored in that I was gone the week before the ride, and considered Maggie’s latest recovery rates on our conditioning rides. Maggie was barely managing 12 miles of hilly country at a moderate pace.

It was just enough to know I couldn’t ask her to complete a 35 mile ride, in hilly country.

So, yet another ride scratched for the season. But it’s not a bad thing. In fact, I am feeling a bit rejuvenated over the whole thing.

About 2 months ago, it was just a tickle in my brain, a passing thought here and there.. is endurance is even worth doing in this part of the country? We only have 1-2 rides that are even remotely close (5 hour or less drive away) and if your lucky, you might be able to seriously start conditioning in June. That alone makes endurance a difficult goal where I live. Then there was the issues I was seeing in Maggie that I didn’t like. Over the course of the last several weeks, that nagging thought kept coming back every time I climbed on her. She was tense, rushy, bracey. Every ride with others was getting a little worse, a little more of a battle to keep her quiet and relaxed. I realized I needed to do something. I don’t know about other endurance riders, but I refuse to have a horse that is a barely controlled runaway with t braced jaw and braced back just so I can fly down the trail and compete in endurance. Not my idea of fun and I am sure not much fun for Maggie either.

When you keep trying to do the same thing and you keep running into road blocks, it’s time to change the path. That is what I have decided to do. No, I am not giving up on endurance. I am just refocusing. For now.

Without the hours of pounding out the miles, I have been spending more time in the arena with Maggie and I have realized a few things. Things I didn’t like. For one, endurance has really done a number on my riding. I have become stiff and bracey in my sitting trot, I have developed tension in my hips and lower back and guess what? It directly translates to my horse.

I have enough years of dressage and equitation lessons to draw upon to fix all of this. It just requires me to spend time on it. And that is what I intend to do.

The arena work has always been there but it was a means to an end, just enough to get by, to get down the trail. A little bending, a little lateral work, a few circles, a few half halts, etc. Now, I am going full blown back to my roots of Dressage, Equitation and maybe a little jumping just to mix it up a bit. I f I want a soft responsive horse that does more than go down the trail, its what Maggie needs. We are already making some good progress and it’s only been a couple weeks of concerted effort. Maggie is finding her slow relaxed trot and getting as soft as butter in my hands. For the first time in a long time, it feels really good to ride her and I think she is happier as well.

So, this weekend instead of packing up to go ride 35 miles, I am packing up to get a few private lessons with a respected horsewoman, Alice Trindle. She is in Hamilton, Montana putting on a 3 day clinic and it’s been a few years since I have had the opportunity to train with her. I think it will be money better spent for where Maggie and I are in our journey.