Category Archives: horse training journal

So after a job interview and car maintenance stuff, I got to the barn early on this sunny Friday afternoon. Miss Mocha was in turnout with the rest of the mares while the piebald mini stallion snorted sweet nothings at the field of mares next to his paddock (who pretty much ignored him except for one mare who LUFFS HIM MUCHLY. Given that he’s about 6 hh and she’s 15 hh, ain’t nothing happening without a lot of coordination, and so far she’s not showing much cooperativeness).

Mocha was totally about the Spring! Mare! mode today. Good grief, a teenaged Valley Girl in full mating cry would have been mellower. Mocha’s not a talky mare usually, but she started talking today and I had to get after her. Even at that, she was distracted and difficult. The little stud’s paddock is right outside one of the arena doors, so he can look in while she’s being worked. We started in a snaffle and she was distracted. Still, I managed to keep it together until she started blowing out of one loop on a serpentine because she was getting distracted by the damn stallion. Coupled with a bit of tough-minded disrespect (she was cutting corners on the serpentine and wouldn’t change leads crisply in the center. I put out cones to mark the loops and the change points, and she started aiming herself at the cones to try to knock them over), and I finally had HAD it.

I stopped her, got off, stomped back to the tack room, got the Pelham bridle (a short-shanked curb with four reins, more severe than the snaffle) and swapped out. I’ve not done that before, but the level of blowing through my cues so that she could knock over cones was getting extremely irritating. It’s one of her “I don’t wanna” moments and, coupled with Let’s See How Fast We Can Run The Cones is a particularly annoying Smart Horse Up Yours Moment. Mocha does aim for cones in this mood and she exudes satisfaction with herself when she knocks them over. I’ve felt her change directions to target a cone when she’s in this mood–which happens just about any time we work cones. Cone work doesn’t go very far with her. But sometimes she needs the visual cue to know where to go.

With the Pelham, I had a very different mare. I still had to correct her a couple of times, but instead of targeting a cone and running off as fast as she could, she slowed down, dropped her head, and did what she was supposed to do.

After a coolout ride and a rinse (during which she turned on her best Kookie Begging Face when it was time to spray down her head–OMG, talk about Terminally Cute, horse enjoying the spray under her jaw while begging for Kookie) and a graze on the Good Grass, I put her back in her stall, whereupon she supervised me cleaning up and mooched a few more Kookies. All was mellow at that point–but boy, she was being a Tough Mare earlier. At one point she was changing leads every stride as she was targeting one particular cone, but it was Cowhorse Version, which meant a lot of interesting lateral movement. Um, if I ever put her to cows, I think I’d better have the chaps on and apply rosin to my seat. We never escalated to slamming the butt on the wall, but I think she was close to it.

Ah well, in a few days she’ll luff me and everything else about the world. And she had a lot of energy. Two more weeks, and I can ride her little behind off–which will make both of us happy.

Blog fail yesterday. I was going to write a little bit about Mocha’s adventures, but between executing said adventures at the barn, and other stuff, just didn’t get to it.

But it was a nice afternoon–AFTER I had the heart-stopping moment of discovering her 50 lb salt block lying in her feed bucket. On the floor. I sifted through the bedding looking for the eye the feed bucket snap hung on, but nothing (any horseperson who’s had to deal with a hoof puncture from a nail knows that sick feeling). No one knows nuthin’ about how the big salt block got into her bucket, but she has a small owie on one hind. Trainer suggested in all seriousness that it was remotely possible that she could have knocked the bucket off of the wall, then put the salt block in it–well, she does play with the block, and she can be a fiddler. Still.

I didn’t boot her up, just went for a light conditioning ride. As expected, she was full of herself and wanted to run. After the downpours we’ve had here over the past week, seepage in the indoor means footing that isn’t the best. But we had a decent schooling, then went for a short hack outside. The puddles were full, and not only did we trot through them, we cantered them! She launches herself quite respectably into a jump at the edge of the puddle, lands, then canters on, as if she’s had eventer training. Then we met up with another horse and owner. Owner was muttering about horse not liking puddles, so back we went for Mocha to give this horse a lead through the puddles.

It’s amazing. The Stall Princess now does water. Not only that, she seems to like it these days.

Afterward, we joined the college class for some groundwork practice so she could dry off a little bit before I put her up. This class is a beginner group and some folks are pretty green and timid. I did show off during the ground-tying practice when I just dropped the rope, said “whoa,” and walked off.

It was also an excellent opportunity to practice squaring up at the halt. Not really a skill you need except for Showmanship classes, but it’s an excellent technique to get the horse to center in and focus on you, especially with other horses around.

Once her legs had dried off a bit, I spent some time on deep grooming. She’s still shedding out and her skin is scurfy and dry, with scaly patches. It doesn’t look like bugs, none of it is particularly itchy, especially on her legs, and it’s been a while since I’ve washed her. Next hot day when I have time, it’s bath time for the horsey girl, perhaps with some tea tree oil mixed in.

All in all, a nice horsey day.

Mocha and I have been schooling in the Pelham lately. With spring and all, she’s gotten a bit strong and opinionated, plus I did something to my left thumb and can barely bend it. So I needed to ride with two hands (not, not gonna try to teach myself to neck rein with the right hand, it would be far too confusing for a rather particular and precise mare. Ahem) while still using some curb elements–ergo, the Pelham.

But things are getting busy with Miscon coming up and various end-of-the-school year things. It’s a good time to back off a wee bit on conditioning and both of us catch our breath, then build back up with frequent short works, then lengthen them out with ground schooling work for bending and flexion.

Therefore, tonight we rode in the snaffle, and no boots. Boots to Mocha are a cue, we’re either going into the show ring or we’re doing a fairly light ride. She’s more relaxed and less on the muscle…but as I realized tonight, less on the muscle does not mean we’re not doing some high level stuff.

She lined out with lots of energy, and my first cue that–ahem–light work these days might mean something other than it used to was when she offered up lead changes on the rail when we usually do them during warmup. No drama, no fuss, just a lead change in response to an unconscious weight shift. Hmm. So I asked again, keeping the rein long, doing a light rein squeeze and leg. Change.

I didn’t ask for the change every two strides–that does get her hot and bothered–but we did calmly and serenely change every four or five strides. She remained relaxed throughout.

And from there we did a few fancy didoes and such, involving random direction changes and small voltes with lead and direction changes…girl sure seems to like that sort of work.

A good ride. Long rein throughout, I never really took up much of a contact, did most of our work by leg, seat, and leaning the rein on her neck. She remained soft in the hand and mellow, despite all the changes and twists and turns.

I think she really likes that kind of work.

Then afterward, a nice long grooming with lots of cookies for her and just a quiet, relaxing groove for the two of us. The sort of night horse people dream about.

Warm out, did a short relaxed ride in the big outside arena because I’m still half-sick and besides we gave Mocha her 5-way vaccination today (EEE, WEE, rhino, flu, tetanus; in November she gets the 2-way which is rhino and flu; in a training barn with a lot of folks in and out so she’s not in a closed herd). Plus yesterday she got trimmed.

It was a sweet little ride. She’s now comfortable enough with countercanter that we can change leads on the rail every three strides and she stays mostly relaxed. I really didn’t collect her up much on the snaffle–long rein ride and she was mostly relaxed and dropping her head. I really didn’t want to collect her up or get her too worked up because of the vaccination. I find that light work on a long rein after the vax seems to help her deal better with it–better to inject before, too, it seems.

Gregg commented that she was loping nice and relaxed, with a level topline.

The other thing is that now we can play in the big outdoor. With just a little bit more space, we can change directions and leads at will, and so a lot of our relaxed loping also involved zig-zagging around swapping leads. Actually kind of relaxing and fun, as well as a bit whimsical. Whimsical is good.

Anyway, a nice riding session. Not a lot of schooling, unless you count countercanter and whimsical direction-swapping at the lope. We do need to school down transitions, heck, transitions always need work. But just a nice playful outdoor arena ride, with lots of walk breaks and work over the railroad tie walkovers. Short, but relaxing.

Another one like that on Friday, to help with further recovery just in case. And then next week back to harder schooling.

Rather pleased with myself–I’d set a goal to get countercanter and tempi changes put on her this winter, and we did it. Now to continue making them No Big Deal.

Cold rainy evening. The only way you can tell these damp cold April evenings from January at the barn is that a.) I’m not wearing my ski base layers and b.) it’s actually light enough outside once I’m done working Mocha that we can hack out to cool off. If it’s not doing something heavier than a very light mist.

The pony stallion was getting braided when I arrived. Even though Mocha clearly wasn’t in heat (not like last week, fortunately), we still had him moved away when I brought her out and tied her up. Even at that, he still snorted around and tried to Be Impressive, but none of us were having it, especially Mocha, who was more interested in licking the wall than checking him out. He is a pretty boy–nicely marked piebald, and with just a bit of work and grooming, he’s muscled right up. Good-minded, to boot–after a wee bit of fuss, he settled for just Watching Mocha, more interested in her than in the treats she was getting.

The Girl was initially a bit on the muscle when we started up, wanting to get bracy and strong. Spring mare silliness. I just pushed her forward into the snaffle–springtime is for snaffles–and we did some small circle walk work, but mostly a lot of bigger circle trot and canter work. By the time we worked up into canter conditioning sets, the edge was long gone and she just wanted the chance to stretch into a working canter and burn off the tension from collection.

I’m finally able to get my legs back where I want them to be. Not consistently, not yet, but I’m getting that good leg drape in fleeting moments at sitting trot, both Western jog and extended jog. We had a few good moments of coordinating footfalls and leg at the trot, maybe about three strides in a row, but…those were awfully dang nice, with a wee bit more elevation. I can tell the sensation is pricking Mocha’s curiosity. It’s a new way to move in balance, and she’s always interested in learning how to move in a new balance.

Unless it’s something that’s really contradicting her notions of movement, like counterbending. And even then, she can be convinced. This evening I worked her at counterbend in the figure 8, did a lead change in counterbend which of course made it the bend, did that for a circle, then went back across the diagonal, swapped leads, went with the bend, and then asked her to maintain it as counterbend and countercanter across the diagonal and around and back into regular lead and bend.

She did it with minimal fuss. OMG. I would not have dreamed of doing that like this even six months ago.

So anyway, after pulling all that stuff off, and then the two-track sets, we settled for the conditioning canter sets with me in two-point. After the first three loops in one direction around the arena, she settled in without straining or pulling ahead, hesitating if she even halfway thought I was going to ask her to stop. When I did ask her to stop, she stopped hard, solid reiner stop, lovely rounded, low headed stop.

And then we went for a hack outside. She’s conditioned enough that she picked up speed and asked to trot through the puddle she knows best (we spend a lot of time splashing and playing through puddles, I like splashing through puddles so she has to learn how to like it). It was a long-rein, light-contact hack with the biggest issue being keeping her from biting at the grass. She came back dry (well, except for puddle splashing) and walking in her big happy Going Somewhere stride.

After I groomed her and put her in the stall to eat, I had to laugh. She’d gotten both grain and her evening hay (alfalfa and grass). After the initial chomping of the grain, she kept wandering over to the alfalfa (she gets enough grain to mix with her Trifecta supplements). So it was a bite of grain, a bite of alfalfa…back and forth.

Just another cold rainy April evening at the barn, getting the conditioning sets in. Since I know there’s a show in September, this year I’m legging her up for that…and y’know, I can’t think of a better way to deal with spring itchies and hormones than to focus on conditioning while tossing in bits and pieces to extend stuff they already know.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens the next time I ask Mocha to cross the diagonal in counterbend without changing leads.

So it appears that I got a bit of whiplash from my ski fall the other day–enough to make driving to and from work painful on Wednesday.  Thursday I stayed home with muscle relaxants, then started tiptoeing back into activity yesterday.

Today, I rode Miss Mocha.  I’d been planning to move up from snaffle to Pelham, just because she’s ready for a bit more collection in counter-canter and outside bend than she’s been willing to offer, and I know that the feel of the curb often helps her balance and relax in a different way from the snaffle.  I rode with a collar, just so I wouldn’t do anything stupid and overbend, plus to keep me from popping my shoulders up.

The photos turned out blurry because the camera was on the wrong setting.  But I did get some good shots, and figured that I’m clearly slumping in my core.  Yuck.  But I did like the line of my hands in this shot:

And a few other shots, including one that just makes me smile to remember how it felt:

And oh yeah, counter-canter does exist.  With a wee bit of collection.

And it’s a brave man who could sit while the horse ran straight at him, without flinching, and snap this shot as she stopped.

(Or at least someone experienced in the ways of reining horses and their people).

Miss Mocha has decided it’s springtime.  For whatever reason, that seems to mean that we are having battles.  Tremendous breakthroughs at the same time…but also battles under saddle.

Today, she decided that the half-open arena side door was Going To Eat Horses.  But since she’s supposed to be a broke, finished horse, the spook consisted of a lovely two-track by the offending door.  When correction happened, it was an even better sidepass at the trot.  Correction, at the moment, being a whip since I’ve been working on my hips and didn’t want to worry about my heels.

Eventually, I prevailed.  But we had to revisit the same battle several times.

But!

She did some lovely two-tracks at the lope (not quite so by the Damned Door, geez, you’d think it’d be good for something!).  A wee bit of fuss at the counter-canter, but still reasonably NBD.

And!

Half-pass on the diagonal at the canter.  In both directions.  Not pretty, not perfect…but this afternoon, after all the outside bend, the counter-canter work, and Everything Else, she decided that Maybe She Could Do It.  After the second one, I dropped the reins on her neck, let her do a few circuits of the arena at a canter on a long rein, then took her outside.

Outside, she got barked at by an aggressive shorthaired pointer on a chain (raised her head, looked intensely but didn’t hesitate or swerve).  Then a flock of mourning doves flew up almost under her nose, not all at once but in sets of two or three, in a succession of five flights, and she never flicked an ear.

Oh, mare.

(I ruefully shake my head.)

I took advantage of the nice sunny but cold weather today to go out to the barn and ride.  When I got there, G told me that he’d had to pull her cooler off from under the main blanket because it was half off.  That’s okay because I don’t think she needs that much extra, now.  She’s grown some of it back, enough to keep her warm in her regular blanket but still have an alert and energetic horse under saddle.

Which she was.  G had opened one side door and of course That Required Notice.  Plus a dove or something big flopped up from the dusty end on the other side of the round pen, which startled her and earned A Look.  But otherwise, she was acting like a kid who’s spotted snow during class, wanting to Look Outside and Not Think.  Didn’t last long, though.  After a few circuits she settled into work.

Today’s work was mostly about inside and outside bend at all three gaits, on big and little circles.  Usual warmup, then work on the bend.  Then two track in both directions at walk and trot, then ask for countercanter, hold it for two big circuits in each direction.

No problem.  I still have to give her a fairly loose rein in countercanter, but I can sit a full seat now and urge her forward.  It’s a bit jarring as yet, but I suspect that will improve as she gains better balance.  It’s clear that working on the outside bend really does help her figure this out, mentally.

And then we finished with a rousing loose rein canter on the inside lead, in both directions.  Not the reining gallop–still too wet for that–but a nice, relaxed thunderabout which keeps The Girl happy.  And, by the way, lays the foundation for a nice, relaxed fast large circle or small slow circle.  These canters are the foundation of the small slows…the gallop with its different body language for the large fasts.  But both really require that horse and rider are comfortable cantering either slow OR fast on a soft rein.

At the very end, we went outside for a short hack, down to the elk bedding area.  They’ve not been there lately but she still gets dancy down there.  Today I urged her into a trot which she found rather exciting (in Mocha terms, which means raised head and eager forward motion looking for what might come along next).

I can tell the effect from acupuncture and Pilates now.  My legs are starting to drop better, and my hips are looser when I swing into the saddle.  Just a few short weeks ago I was wincing every time I got on.  Still not sufficiently confident in the legs to put the spurs back on, though.  I think it was leaving that spur mark on her that made me realize that the hip issue had gotten extremely serious.  Now I can really feel the difference, but I’ve still got a ways to go before it’s all better.  I want to be able to sit with crossed legs again by the summer concert season!

Now…time to go take care of a couple of things, then check in with the tutorial student.