Monthly Archives: February 2020

Riding log day 17–2/21/2020. Snaffle, English saddle. Melting snow with some ice.

Back to a reasonable approximation of normal life the day after getting back from the RadCon/Portland trip disruption. The horses were up around the fence, and Mocha’s head shot up when I called her while pulling her halter off of the gate. She walked partway to me, then waited because the yearlings had decided to mug me for scratches and beg for cookies. They got their scratches but no cookies. This batch is very friendly and social, and will walk up to me to have their heads scratched as well as their neck and withers. The fact that it’s warming up and that long hair is getting itchy doesn’t hurt, either.

Mocha’s still not releasing any more than a handful of hairs yet, but it’s clear that shedding is not far off. Her coat just has that look. I decided that the next decent sunny riding day is going to start by not just clipping her bridle path but trimming the long hairs on her throatlatch, windpipe, and chest. It’s time, and those are the places that sweat the worst on warmer days with any exertion.

We started off by shooing away a new horse who apparently LOOOOVES Mocha. He nickers at her, tries to follow us, and when she was turned loose, trotted out to join her and her buddy. She seems to tolerate him when it’s just her and Sweetie, but if I’m around and dispensing treats, ear-pinning grouchy mare happens. When we were done discouraging him from trailing along behind us, though, Mocha let it be known that she was in March Mare Mood and did not want to settle into work. She wanted to run. I did let her do two fence lengths of canter, on opposite leads, and March Mare Moment meant she wanted to take the lead SHE wanted to take, so discussions happened. Then we settled into serpentine work at walk and trot, followed by two-tracking before a spell of loose rein. Then we did a decent backing in figure 8. Even though she was grumpy about it, at least this time the circles matched…yay. Followed with spirals in and out and bowties, with appropriate long rein walk spells. Ended with the line of shoulder and haunch turns, and then it was four lengths at the canter. Of course she wanted to insist that the leads were HER choice, not MINE, so we Had A Discussion. All typical March Mare. Ended with spins, still better going to the right than the left.

But she was not gimping like last time, and she had good energy throughout.

I attribute March Mare to itchy skin and seasonal hormonal stuff. She’s sweating enough that combined with hair that’s ready to shed makes her really itchy. I pulled off her halter during the post-ride groom to give her face a thorough brushing. Horsey bliss, with half-closed eyes, soft expression, head extended toward me and leaning into the brush.

Overall a good day.

Riding log day 16. Snaffle, English saddle. Slight and occasional gimp on right fore, but not consistent, occasional step at the trot and seemed to work out of it though she trotted off with a mild bob when turned loose that didn’t stop her from cantering on her right lead when she figured out where her buddy was. It may just testify to the need for the latest Adequan shot, which she got today. Last I saw she was assembling her Windbreak of Friends.

Fresh snow last night that thankfully waited to fall until after we got back from RadCon. New horses in the field, one of whom appears to want to pester Mocha. Well, that one learned later that pestering Mocha with a rider on her is Not A Good Idea. Mocha gets pretty enthusiastic about herding other horses if they want to chase her when I’m up. Luckily, said horse also took a clue pretty easily.

She’s not in full shedding mode yet. I managed to loosen a few hairs but no, no sign of shedding. Probably a good thing if the current long range forecast holds, especially in light of tonight’s temps that are supposed to be in the low teens.

In spite of the gimp she moved out pretty enthusiastically. We are getting better at consistent serpentines at both walk and trot, including serpentines with counterbend. Oh, there’s still a few wobbles, but judging by the evidence in the snow, we’re improving. She’s becoming straighter at the two track in walk, with less of that issue of leading shoulder than it’s been. Backing in a figure 8–well, the circle to the right is still smaller and funky, but not as bad as the last time. And the spiral in and out at the walk was a bit closer in size than it was last time. Our bowties are consistent in trot for the most part (just one stretch of one of them was a little rushy, but improved).

She was really thinking about using herself during the spirals, with the low head, focus, and light contact on the rein with a little bit of stretching that goes along with it. I was having to make some minor corrections, but a lot of that felt more like she needed the support of rein or leg rather than any actual resistance, which is good. After a week off due to convention and other stuff, I suppose it’s to be expected. But it felt good and it felt to me like she was using the exercise for what it is supposed to be. Yay.

And I am really, really liking the snow this year for how our riding patterns are coming up. I guess it speaks to the lack of actual schooling that I was doing before that I only noticed how well snow holds working patterns. Either that or I wasn’t really focusing/paying attention to the patterns in previous years, which is also possible since I was focusing on straight line conditioning then. The serpentines looked a little bit like a DNA helix when we were done with them (well, except for the later trot and canter across them), and the spirals looked pretty good. It is a lot easier to track patterns in snow than in dirt, even freshly tilled dirt. There’s a lot more contrast in snow.

Mocha felt comfortable enough with the footing to stretch out in our finishing canter. Right now I am reluctant to do schooling work in canter…but a nice rousing canter that might edge into a gallop…well, the old gal still likes that. And today’s spins to the left were much better, once I waved the right rein a little bit.

We finished off with ground schooling. She’s starting to get back to the pattern of stopping square or close to square again. Consistent work, that’s what it takes.

Riding log day 15: bareback pad and snaffle, short pre-farrier ride.

I always like to get out and ride the arthritic girl around a bit before her farrier comes. Even though she’s out to pasture and does get meds to help with the arthritis, getting her moving beforehand just loosens everything up.

She knows what’s going on, of course. Different halter. And while I do ride her occasionally in the bareback pad, that usually comes out just before the farrier. Even though her spine has a nice bit of padding on it…she’s still a sharp-spined horse and not as comfy as, say, a Shetland.

There were drifts in the little triangle right-of-way (the old road used to have very sharp curves and is now sharp but still gentler S curves). Deeper than what we’d encountered in the pasture but a good pre-farrier workout. We’d done some warm up walks and were starting on serpentines when the farrier came. Because the main area was very icy (Mocha minced across it with the clear attitude that she didn’t trust the footing), we shod her under the patience tree, on the mats. Safer for everyone involved, and easier to clean up (although this guy is much, much neater than others I’ve encountered in the past).

I don’t know if it was the location or the workout through deeper snow, but for once the old lady was pretty chill. She rested her muzzle against my hand and drowsed a little bit. Of course she did her usual thing and touched her nostril to the farrier’s back–just that gentle brush she does to handlers she likes, and she does really like this farrier. Even if he gets after her if she’s being a stinker (which does happen sometimes).

Still winter shoes in the front only, but odds are that next time in March, she’ll get shoes on all four hooves again. Then we can start road riding in earnest.

Riding log day 14. Snaffle bridle, English saddle. Mid-30s F, 2-4 inches of snow over ice.

I missed a couple of regular riding days due to weather, meetings, and doing the sale thing at Hurricane Creek Grange this Friday and Saturday. That said, the conditions on Thursday were downright crappy, and even though Wallowa County missed a lot of the nasty flooding that hit Pendleton, Walla Walla, Stanfield, and Hermiston (and which shut down I-84, which is only open now as a detour due to washouts), it was still of the sort that after my Soroptimist meeting at noon, I wasn’t about to strap on the chinks and ride in rain with melting snow and ice. Friday, I was at the sale and searching out flood videos on Facebook as the implications of what had happened in Pendleton became more clear. Saturday, I was at the sale again. So today was really the first day to ride for me since the weather went cockeyed.

Mocha was being standoffish and her buddy got on my stinky list by encouraging her to walk away. We did a somewhat longer straight line stretch because of the length of time away, and because I wanted to get a sense for the footing. In some places there’s ice under snow, in others it’s not as icy. Plus a long section of trot is a decent warmup.

So yeah we did the usual serpentines. My eye is getting better at being more consistent, though the counterbend segments are still smaller and wonky and need work. Two-tracking. Long rein walk, then gather the reins and back in a figure 8. That…needs work as well. Not Mocha–she’s back in the groove and doesn’t throw her head up to resist and bend as much as she used to. But while the first circle backing to the right was pretty decent, the second circle to the left….needs work. Pilot work.

Then we worked in trotting serpentines, then did the bowtie trot exercise, with appropriate walk breaks in between. The bowtie is becoming a relaxing trot routine for her, because she drops her head and picks up a consistent pace throughout. So it looks like I can ask her to do a bowtie when she’s tense at the trot, and she’ll slip into a relaxed mode because this is supposed to be a relaxing exercise with a consistent pace. Yay!!! After that we worked a spiral in and out at the walk. Once again, the circle to the right is very nice and reasonably precise. The left…oh, that so needs work. Again, it’s the pilot error. Nonetheless, she was also stretching and relaxing into the spiral, just as I’d hoped. What trotting we’d done to this point had shown a mild soreness in her right shoulder. She was doing everything right…I just wasn’t as accurate (circles become ovals to the left, or so it seems, both forward and backward).

Another walk break, and then the canter sets, with plenty of walk between. Still four sets. Footing was not such that I wanted to work on canter serpentines, and with shoulder being cranky I didn’t think it was particularly a good idea. Straight line canter, though, with me up in the stirrups and off of her back, hands on her withers like I’m galloping a racehorse? Yeah.

On the way back we did the half turn lines–forehand to haunches, ending with two full turns on forehand and haunches at the end, in both directions. And then we did spins. She’s getting evasive and self-protective spinning to the left, moving her hind end around too much. But the difference between a greenie and an experienced, finished horse? I waved a rein end off of her right side after the unsatisfactory three spins to the left. All of a sudden I  had LOVELY spins. MARVELOUS, CORRECT spins to the left. No, girl. Gotta do it the right way. If you don’t do it the right way, you’ll end up hurting yourself.

I thought those were still in the old girl, especially since she is whipping them out hard and fast in the other direction. She just needs to practice them correctly.

Then we did some ground schooling with the same issue on the ground, only forehand turns to the right and haunches turns to the left. All require her to use that right shoulder, so we’re gonna slow things down and take it piece by piece.

All the same, it was a nice riding day. The next two weeks will be funky due to convention and travel, and then hopefully the weather gets better and we get more training time in. Soon it’ll be time to add in conditioning rides as well. Looking forward to that. Right now it’s pretty much just maintenance schooling.

I know, I know, I keep promising other blog posts and then here I am with yet another riding log post. Sorry not sorry. A lot of effort is going into juggling stuff right now. But tonight I stepped out on the front porch to watch sparkling crystal snowflakes idly floating down and hearing nothing but the roar of Prairie Creek. So very nice. The second or third best part of the day, behind what it felt like after spending some time on the acupuncture table and what this blog is about…today’s ride with Mocha (the acupuncture part may switch places…).

Anyway.

Riding log day 13. Snaffle and English saddle.

Mocha was grumpy and I was grumpy. I’m not sure why she was grumpy, except that the yearlings started pressing in before we walked away from the herd, but she was grumpy. Me, I was grumpy because of delivery problems with some books coming in and neck pain that just decided to show up this week. Ugly neck pain. Arrgh.

Anyway. We had some discussions about where I wanted her to stand during grooming and tacking. I noticed she was still kind of stiff along her back after Saturday’s ride. Nonetheless, we headed out. Footing had improved since the temperatures had dropped and we’d gotten more snow. I took her out to the far riding area, and asked her to trot once we passed the arena. Then we dropped down to a walk and did the serpentines at walk and trot, followed by two tracking. And there was a backing figure 8 in there, as well as a couple of bowtie patterns. I’m getting a notion to try turning the bowtie into a star at some point…what a quilter thing to do, because there’s several different possibilities that could end up making some nice patterns in fresh snow…but I digress. Still, the notion of translating some quilting patterns into schooling patterns is…um…interesting to contemplate.

Then we did the zigzag trot and turn exercise. Somewhere in the mix we did a line of canter serpentines. But she was getting rushy heading into deep snow, that same left-to-right lead change that can be difficult. So after that line we dropped back to walk and trot work, saving the canter for the very end where we just did a straight-line stretch and extend on each lead. That rushiness told me that she was struggling a little bit with the snow depth, so why push it?

On the way back we did some spins. She’s wanting to move around too much when spinning right-to-left. But I finally got some correct spins out of her in that direction. But it’s not just spins I have to watch with her. It’s the regular forehand and haunches turns. At some point she gets anticipatory and wants to step out of them. I just have to remember to slow down, take a deep breath, and focus on what she is doing.

After untacking and grooming, we did some showmanship schooling. I’ve been doing this all winter with varying degrees of intensity…mostly alternating rate of walk speed and halting to move into standing square. Lately, I’ve upped the ante a bit, with doing forehand turns, haunches turns, and sidepassing in each direction. Yeah, I get a bit of the horsey equivalent of the eye-rolling teen with this stuff. But I notice that she is paying more attention to me when I’m leading her around. Pairing the ground schooling with schooling under saddle (as opposed to mostly hacking and occasional schooling) helps bring out her old self. And even though she’s giving me the ‘tude about it, I think she actually likes being back in the working structure. She’s a lot more relaxed this days, and I can’t help but think it’s a factor.

Yeah. An old show horse is sometimes still a show horse.

2/1/2020–Snaffle and English saddle. Road ride, approximately 6.5 miles

The mileage on today’s ride is about two miles more than we’ve been doing in the field, but somebody is clearly not just fat but fit. We had unseasonably warm temperatures and the pasture was water over ice, so I opted for the road. Mocha was immediately energized…boy, was she ever energized. It’s been several months since we’ve gone down the road, it felt like March instead of February, and we had a steep rise in temperature followed by (tonight) a swift drop.

Of course, this meant that once we were on the gravel road, there were Many Scary Things. Lots and lots of Scary Things. Then again, she was already UP, as characterized by her sticking her nose into an empty tub of vitamin mix by the pasture gate (something she has seen many times before, and licked mix out of herself) and snorting that deep, roller snort that means This Eats Horses, Be Alert. I was rolling my eyes because she had her nose deep inside the Scary Blue Thing, but also fully aware that it was going to be A Ride.

Which it was. We ended up making many circles in certain places because she wanted to be silly. Some were understandable and others were being reactive for reactiveness’s sake. Luckily the gravel roads are sufficiently soft that we could trot and canter in stretches, as well as work schooling figures. The bowtie pattern is one where she’s clearly starting to settle into as relaxing…yay.

So. Eleven rides in January, one an indoor ride, ten outdoor with schooling. We’ve been able to work at all three gaits. Mocha’s demonstrating energy and a certain degree of fitness, which makes me wonder if she just needed to put on that extra fifty pounds, at least for winter. I lost about a week and a half due to being sick the first part of the month. Not sure if I’m going to get many more rides in during February than I did in January. Besides weather weirdness, I have a bazaar that will eat up two days, a science fiction convention, and a quick trip to Portland. But we shall see.