Monthly Archives: April 2012

Horse had a rather disgusted look on her face when I showed up…it’s always interesting to see her reaction when I’ve been away for a week or so.  Either she’s very demanding of attention and work or she’s mad at me for being gone and is sulky.  Tonight started out sulky, but she was easily persuaded to perk up with treats and brushing.  Hard to say which one she likes best, especially when she’s still shedding the winter hair.

Cool weather meant she hung back a wee bit at the beginning, so I picked up a crop.  Funny how that changes her attitude–don’t need to use it, just need to carry it.  And then she moves right up.  I also will use it as a tapping cue to get her to back off of my leg a little bit, and she was responsive to that.

All the same, outside of a little stiffness when asked to bend on the right rein, she did pretty well for an unanticipated layoff (due to son’s illness).  She was ready to dig in and work, so work we did.  Lots of two-track at walk and trot, plus lots of sitting trot with good impulsion.  Some high-headed bracing at the beginning, but she eventually softened a little (not a lot, I don’t expect a lot after a layoff) and we played with legs and half-halt to get forward and impulsion.  Then we went to collected canter (well, semi-collected tonight) and gallop, which she enjoyed immensely.  And!  While our first couple of sessions of canter back from gallop weren’t as immediate as I would like, toward the end she was decelerating almost as fast as she can accelerate.  Which is pretty dang fast, considering how she shoots ahead when I lean forward and bring my hands forward.

Still like to get her on a track someday and see what it’d feel like to ask her to sprint all out for a quarter mile.  While she’s mostly Doc Bar (Doc O’Lena and Gay Bar King), there’s some Leo in there as well….and girl can run when she wants.  She’s got a pretty good engine in that hind end.

At the end she felt pretty good about her work, lining out on the long rein in her big, free-swinging swagger walk that could rival a Thoroughbred’s in its reach.  Back swaying, stepping deep under herself…going somewhere, head long and low, ears forward.  It’s a pleasure to ride and from what I can see of her expression, a gait she truly enjoys.  That big relaxed swinging walk of hers is so much fun to sit and she does it after she’s had a good workout and seems to feel good about it.

A good horse night.  Satisfying without being weird.  Both of us got a productive workout and we pretty much just focused on conditioning and fine-tuning our cues.  Doesn’t get much better than that.

Getting bored with horse posts?  Hope not, because here’s another one.  There is other stuff happening, just can’t/won’t talk about it as it involves work thoughts.  Writer brain is locked in revisions and not much happening there.  So horse or skiing, and horse it is tonight.

Mocha’s now recognizing the sound of the new car.  Today she was in her old post by the door, watching for me to come in.  It’s always a bit of a thrill to walk in the door and spot the white of her blaze in the front of the stall, showing that she’s looking for me.  While the Sparkle mare and the Windy pony both liked me well enough, and Sparkle would watch the back door from the pasture, they’d just as happily greet my mom as they would me.  Not so Mocha.  While G. and his wife I. have a spot in her heart, I really don’t have other competition.

The nice thing about having a broke horse is that if you’re riding and someone asks for help, you can just step down, tell your horse “whoa,” and go off to lend a hand while the horse stays in place.  I remember six years ago wondering if Mocha and I would ever be at that spot.  Well, now we are and we have been in that place for a good two or three years.  That skill is one of those little quiet achievements that are nonetheless important to me, along with being able to walk up to her in any circumstance and pick up a hoof without restraint.

The circumstance for parking her came about from a request.  One of the working students needed to know the correct way to set up a stud chain as a training tool (pushy greenie in ground work, chain’s there to back him off of the lead rope and is wrapped around the halter noseband).  Greenie was being alternately pushy and jumpy; had to snap him with my thumb (thumb cocked behind index finger, pop in nose when pushy horse starts lipping the hand) a couple of times when he started to lip my hand.  He’d been tied to a patience post while G. taught a college riding class, tied up safely and then expected to learn to stand while other horses worked around him.  It works.  Takes time, but eventually even the pushiest learn to drowse off and/or watch what’s going on quietly.

I took my time to set up the chain as he was still wanting to pull back against the rope a little bit; simply stopped when he got fiesty and let him figure out that even though I was working around his head he wasn’t getting turned loose.  From the way he acted I suspect he’s been able to break away from being tied when the rope either got loosened or unsnapped.  So–let him hit the end of the rope, figure out nothing was going to get him loose if he was going to be a stinker like that, and let him learn.

Which he did.  It wasn’t panic or fear, never did have that panic wild eye.  More the calculating gaze of the pony brain who’s figured out a trick.  Two times back against the rope, I’d just stop what I was doing, he’d straighten right up and come forward.  Again, not the behavior of a panic.  Slow, calculated, thoughtful.  Watching what I was doing.  Thinking about what I was doing.

So I set up the chain, then got back on Mocha and we worked while the student put him through basic groundwork paces.  Noticed he was a bit pushy at first, then started developing some manners.  Working Mocha around him was good.  He got a wee bit anxious but settled as he realized she wasn’t affecting him.

Still working Mocha in the snaffle.  I’ve been working quite a bit on getting her to soften and yield to the bit.  As the pictures from the show demonstrated, she’s still not consistent with that and she really should be.  She’s also in dripping heat at the moment, so I’m happy with whatever I can get out of her.  It takes about fifteen to twenty minutes of solid warmup work before she softens up, and when she does…oh man, that big trot is amazing.  Definitely not a Western pleasure jog.  We didn’t have the full submission and softening for very long, but when we did….that feeling through her back and the way she just picked up and started to zoom at the trot–well, I just kept thinking “soft back, butter back, soft back, butter back” and making my legs soft and long and supporting her with my calves.  Yum.  A very nice working trot.

And she is getting oh-so-rateable in canter, and it’s not just me taking up the reins.  I can now relax my seat, lean forward, move my hands forward and she springs ahead into an extended canter/hand gallop.  Then I can sit up, take a firmer contact, slow my seat while still keeping it supportive and active so that she knows we’re still cantering, it’s just slower.

For us this is huge.  She’s not wanted to cooperate with being rated in the canter, slowing and extending have been big challenges.  It’s not something I’ve been able to pull together in the English saddle but it’s coming along much more easily in the Western tack, complete with seat cues.  Then again, if the English saddle was poking her, it’s understandable she wouldn’t want to be rated.  Her back is changing again, with more muscling toward the back of the scapula.  I have a feeling that’s tied into the changes in her movement.

Her stops have also improved.  I can breathe “whoa” in the hand gallop and she goes to ground.  Period.  Nose and butt down, and we’re stopped.

We also achieved a milestone this afternoon.  Thanks to the wet, there were many good mud puddles in the tree farm, including one nice wide long puddle that Mocha and I cruised several times at a walk.  Then I asked her to trot through it.  Just what I could see of her original expression from her ears and quick eye glimpse, and feel from her back was hilarious–Princess Pony’s “OMG, DISGUSTING WET WET WET OMG THIS IS FUN!!”

Keep it up and I’ll have her splashing through puddles and sending water flying like a pro.  Cracks me up, though, when she goes all Princess Pony on me like that.

Gotta love life with a horsey character.  Keeps it real.

As the Pacific Northwet is doing its best to live up to its nickname these days, of course the moods seem to be matching it, horse and human alike.  Quirky, grumbly, but still good for a work session.

When I got to the barn, once again Mocha was standing there with her tail in the bucket.  Nice and relaxed, but her tail was living in her water bucket.  Walked off as calm as could be, even when the wet tail hit her legs.  There was a certain flicker of sarcastic amusement in her eyes when I opened the stall door.  Clearly it’s meant to be some sort of horse joke.  The expression is too much like that in the eyes of a middle school prankster.  However, being a mere human, I’ve not the faintest clue what the joke is about.

We’ve run short on doing works over the past two weeks due to scheduling stuff, and it shows under saddle.  She resisted softening up and coming onto the bit for the longest time, even though she was eager for the initial stretching.  Well, heck, she’s probably a little stiff and achy with all this rain.  I am too.  So I kept pushing, kept asking for the bend at a walk, did two-track, half-halts, whoa-back, and finally we broke through the Wall O’ Stiffness.  Suddenly she wasn’t fighting the rein but softly carrying the bit.  A little bit at the walk, and I started asking for it at the trot, which was quite nice.  She’s gone from “dear God this trot sucks” to having a quite nice sitting working trot.

But the nicest part of this afternoon’s session was moving from lightly collected lope to hand gallop and then back to it.  I’ve been schooling this for the past few weeks and had the chance to try it while riding through a lesson.  G had two little intermediate level kids who were working at all three gaits.  Mocha and I did several circuits of collected lope and then we had to pick up the pace to squeeze out of a tight spot.  I asked her for the gallop and she gave it.  We continued round, then I asked her to come back into the collected lope without breaking.

She did it.  Yay!  Mocha gets pretty wound up at the gallop, especially after a lot of collected work and when working at that speed around other horses, but this afternoon she was very rateable and soft in the hand.  I was very pleased with this state of affairs and we did it several times, quite nicely.

Not quite done with snaffle work at the moment.  I am so very pleased with schooling in the latigo leather reins.  The feel is more secure and when I have to take hold of Mocha’s mouth to lift a shoulder or correct her position, it’s steadier and much, much more effective.  I’m able to use less pressure with the stiffer rein and I really do think it’s a better feel.  In return, she seems to like these reins better now, and responds more effectively, with fewer objections or annoyed reactions.  She just feels happier in my hand.

I do need to borrow G’s mullen mouth curb, though.  I think she’s ready to move on from that correction curb, and it’s different enough that I think she could like it.  If she does, then the trick is finding another one like it.  It’s an Arab bit in size and weight, but she’s got an Arab-sized mouth with Arab-sensitivity to it.  Could mean I spend a lot of time in tack shops checking out bit weights and balances over the next few months….