Cody in the Round Pen

Tricia was still feeling under the weather so we didn't have a lesson tonight. Since it was 40+F I figured I better get out and do something. Cody and I went into the round pen to work on some of our manners. I don't know what the deal is. He was nearly perfect. Circling and doing up and downward transitions on voice commands. Backing when asked. Stepping over a pole when asked. He even circled at liberty and was really exceptional when I asked for a halt. He stopped right where he was still facing the way he was going, and turned his head to look at me. So if he's so darn good in the round pen, why is he such a pill under saddle? Crazy horse.

Photo Day

Jeff and I planned to go out to the barn and try and shoot some goofy engagement type photos on the horses. We were going to just do the tripod and remote thing but he asked his friend Andy to shoot instead. He's a bit of a photographer so all the better. It happened that we stopped at KFC on the way so there was some popcorn chicken to go around. While Andy and Jeff walked down to the creek to take a look at the sights, Cody ate one and decided he didn't care for any more. Kalani and Beau spit theirs out. Corey and Kiko ate theirs. And Axel chased me down trying to eat the box out of my hand.

We decided to just get on bareback with bridles and ride out in the first pasture so the other horses would stay out of our way. Cody was pretty well behaved for once. It's a bit of a fight to get him to turn away from the herd but I tried to stop yanking on his face the instant he gave in to go my way. He also trotted a bit and it was pretty darn smooth, easy to sit bareback. Andy wanted us to gallop so he could shoot it but there was no way I was going to get Cody going. He's really bumpy when he gets moving. And when Axel took off in a medium trot, Jeff nearly fell off. So the galloping was just not going to happen. After goofing around for a while and shooting some pictures, Andy jumped on Axel and walked around a bit. His first time on a horse since he was 3. He did pretty well considering we didn't give him a saddle. I think he was a little surprised I was able to give him a leg up in the first place.

So we're a little late for Christmas cards so we'll probably do Christmas/new year/engagement/save the date type cards. It looks like Snapfish only has one option for save the date cards, so I'll have to look around and see if I can find something better. Or I suppose we could print them ourselves. I hope Andy just burns me a CD of all the images from today.

Gorgeous Ride

Sandy came out to the barn with me this afternoon for a little trail ride. I can't believe it's December 9th and nearly 50F outside. I was a little bit surprised when Cody actually led fairly well to the back gate. And then we made it all the way down the hill without him turning around to try and go back. We did have a bit of an issue across the bridge, Cody didn't want to go up the hill so we went around the loop at the bottom of the hill first instead.

Axel was his usual pokey self and making Sandy ask for a walk every other step. We made it up the hill and around the meadow successfully and headed for the woods. Axel gave Sandy a bit of a thrill when he tried to canter up the little dip in the woods. The canter which was followed by Axel's usual buck. Luckily it wasn't much.

We went through the woods and turned around to head back. When we got to the dip I planned to make Cody stop at the bottom and walk up, something we need to practice. He spazzed and bolted up the hill. In the mean while Axel decided to have some fun of his own and proceeded to buck down the hill and back up the other side. Sandy just about lost it but managed to stay on. Not sure what had gotten into Axel. My second plan was to make Cody walk back down to the bottom of the dip and walk back up over and over again til he got it right. But Sandy was a little shaky I think and Cody was a ball of nerves. I could feel him vibrating, he did not want to go back down the hill. So we walked out of the woods and I told Sandy to just let Axel stand and eat and I schooled Cody a bit. I figured if he always wanted to run well then we were going to run. So we trotted around a tree in the meadow several times in each direction while Axel stood and ate. Cody was already worked up and sweaty and after trotting around on my command he was more than happy to walk when I asked. He was still a bit quick walking down the main hill back to the bridge but he was a lot calmer.

We made it back to the barn in one piece and fairly calmly. I was going to lunge Cody when we got back but he was pretty wet. So I tied him up and put a wool blanket on him. I wanted to take Axel out and let him trot or canter around and see if he was just cranky or what. His saddle is way too huge for me so I was flopping around and could hardly post. He cantered and bucked and was generally a pill. Even after that, though, he wasn't really sweaty at all. Just a bit wet under his girth and chest. After their apples both boys laid down to roll like good kids. Atleast we got to spend some time outside this weekend in the nice weather.

Next time Cody and I are going to have a little discussion over this running up the hill thing. We might spend quite some time going up and down that little dip. But we probably won't get a chance to do that until spring, if it ever decides to be winter. Until then it'll have to be some ground work.

Dressage Lesson #25 - Bareback!

The lesson wasn't so much dressage as it was bareback riding. Tricia told me to let Axel wander around the round pen wherever he wanted to go as long as he kept walking. I dropped the reins and put my hands on my hips and off we went at a walk. So bareback at the walk, that's no big deal. As we're wandering around, at a pretty nice walk for once, I thought she completely lost it when she said we'd be doing this at the trot soon. I figured she meant sometime in the future, not that same lesson! So we wandered at the walk and I tried to not get too worried about the upcoming trotting.

The idea was that since I wasn't steering at all, I'd have to learn to sit properly in case Axel took off in an unsuspected direction. Tricia assured me that Axel's trot was nothing to worry about, but I made her promise to catch me when I fell. I had hoped we'd keep walking for a while but it was time to ask for a trot. Just so you don't forget, this was me, on a horse, with no saddle, and essentially no bridle, trotting. I asked for the trot (we were tracking right) and I got the typical mellow Axel trot. It took us a few tries before he'd keep trotting around more than a few strides without stopping. But after a couple times I was feeling pretty good, and Axel kept on the circle without being asked. Tricia got me a lead rope with a popper so if he stopped I could escalate my request and teach him that it was more comfortable to keep doing whatever he's doing unless I ask otherwise. It really didn't take much before I barely squeezed and he'd go, not even getting a chance to use the popper. So that lesson was learned.

After a few times around at the trot Axel started to get kind of annoyed or sore, or something. The ground is hard now, they just had their feet done recently, Axel might have a stifle issue, or he's just plain cranky. In any case, his first few protests were just flinging his head around. His next protest was a huge buck (huge for Axel). At that point I did grab some mane when I asked for the next few trots, just in case. I stayed on though. It may have been a big buck but it didn't really unseat me at all. He settled in finally and we trotted around for ages and I felt pretty darn good about it. I asked him to stop (no where near the gate) and let him stand there for a while as a reward. Now it was time for the bad side (tracking left). It started out a bit bumpy. Axel bends to the outside going this way and I was certain my knee was going to get smashed on the panels of the round pen. He was cranky going this direction and had a few "moments" where he'd speed up and I'd feel like I was going to loose it, but I held it together. Only ending up on his neck once and I can't even recall what he did that unseated me so much. I don't remember the point when he finally loosened up and went with it, but all of a sudden we noticed he wasn't bending to the outside any more and he wasn't getting angry when I asked him to keep trotting. And I only almost lost my knee twice.

He was getting a little close to the fence so I asked him to move away and that's when he started choosing random directions to go in. He'd track left for a while, then switch and track right, or make a smaller circle in the middle. Once his direction choice caught me off guard but I remained on his back. Hey if the ground was hard enough to hurt his feet, it's sure gonna hurt me if I fall off, right?! He was really loose and feeling okay about it at this point. I had picked up the reins at the buckle just in case, since previously he had been threatening to buck, but I kept them as loose as possible. I was very surprised at how easy it was to sit his trot bareback. Granted he wasn't using his rear end much at all, making for a smoother trot for me. We stopped in the far "corner" and stood for a bit and I dismounted. Luckily this week he wasn't drenched in sweat. His belly was a bit damp but cold so we fed him in the barn and then turned him out with the rest of the herd.

So overall the lesson for me was balance, and the lesson for Axel was that if he kept doing what he was asked even on a long rein (or no rein), we'd leave him alone. After last weekend's walk through the woods with a saddle and no rider, and now this week's loose rein bareback lesson, I'm hoping he starts relaxing a little bit and not loosing interest. I'm not sure if we can start looking for changes yet as far as his joints go. we've been giving him Senior Flex for only a week now I think. It'll probably be a week or two more before we can start seeing any improvements if there are going to be some. He did settle in tracking left fairly easily, maybe that's because of the supplement, who knows.