Kiko and Kalani

I decided to make a separate post for Kiko and Kalani's videos. These will hopefully get put into an FLV so they look a lot better before we really start advertising them for sale. But if you're interested in my awesome video editing skills you can witness them here.

My kingdom for a seat saver!

A person should probably work up to a 4 hour trail ride in a hard western saddle. It's probably not the best idea to bite it off in one big chunk. But I never said that I usually do the smart thing. Rather than deal with Cody's trailer loading issues and Axel being possibly lame still, I just went up to Tricia's and we took Oly and the new horse out to Lake Rebecca park. The new horse is Tricia's niece's horse. His name is Rocky Top Scotch (or something like that) but they haven't come up with a barn name for him yet. We went through a plethora of ideas while we were riding though. Too bad I can't remember half of them.

On my way up to her farm I was getting a little concerned at the weather. It was raining in one part of Farmington, sunny in the next. When I got to Waconia it just started downpouring. By the time I got to Watertown there was no rain at all. I have learned my lesson being so far away from everything, that the weather could and probably is totally different on the other side of the cities. I was right about that. We made good time packing up the truck, loading the horses, and getting to the park. Then we had to clean the mud off of both horses. What is it with buckskin/palominos that make them roll in the mud more than any other horse?

The trail was pretty nice. No one else was there and most of it is closing starting the 7th of July for repairs. So we squeaked in right under the wire. It was a little buggy in some of the lower areas but only one really bad section of the 9 miles. The only bad part is there is only one picnic area along the way and no tie ups for the horses. The new horse is a little excited and liked to trot as much as possible. He was tough going down hills and he just kind of scrambled down them tripping and not paying attention. Other than that he seemed fine, nothing really bothered him at all. Even when Oly spooked at a few things he was calm about it. They did both spook at a tree when they turned to look at it a motorcycle zoomed by on the nearby road and they both jumped sideways, the new horse landing on Oly causing a bit of a chaotic mess. But they came out if it well and were just as calm afterwards. We kept our ride to a walk and a trot, not sure how the new guy's canter would have been. He's a smaller horse so it could very well be pretty choppy.

Near the end of the ride, about the time I thought I might die from hip and knee and rear end pain, Tricia and I switched horses so she could see how the new horse was. Now Oly has gotten himself a bad reputation. Something about trying to kill Tricia when she first got him. I had actually ridden him right after she bought him (pre homicide attempts) but hadn't been on him since. She's worked him through his issues and now he's a pretty solid calm trail horse. The difference in how he felt now from when I first rode him is pretty extreme. He still moves out but he's got a much calmer feel about him. We even had a trot near the end of our ride. It started raining about 10 minutes before the end so we trotted up pretty close to the end of the trail. Oly has a very nice trot, easy to post and not frantic. I'll have to ride him again sometime.

After regaining my ability to walk we loaded up the horses (the rain had stopped right as we got to the trailer) and stopped at the DQ on the way home. I'm a glutton for punishment so I decided as long as I was sort of in the neighborhood I would stop by Pinto Creek on my way home. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do but I figured I'd think of someting. Patti was feeding when I arrived so I groomed both Cody and Axel while they ate. It had rained there so trying out the hoof boots on the road wasn't going to happen (wouldn't want to get them dirty already!). I finally decided on riding Cody in the side pasture to see how he was doing. Surprise surprise he did really really well. We still had our usually dance around the mounting block. But the ride was nice. He was interested in the other horses but was listening to me. We did some circles and some figure 8s. We even went around the tree and worked a tiny bit on the other side of the trees away from the herd. I worked on a loose rein with lots of leg and that seemed to go well for Cody. Not quite as precise as it probably should have been as far as getting our turns when they were asked but he never ran off out of a pattern. I only worked him for a few minutes, he was being so good I wanted to be sure to end on a good note and not push it. We rode to the opposite side of the trees and dismounted there (at a good solid halt). I then untacked at the mounting block to practice our halt there as well. And I led him out to where Kiko was standing and turned him out at that point. So overall it was a successful ride. And my dressage saddle is way more comfortable than that western I had been riding in.

Movie Stars

I got Jeff to come out with the video camera to take some video of various things. First thing he taped was Cody experiencing his new hoof boots for the first time. Application of murphy's law #1: Cody pretty much walked normally with the boots on. He did step a bit higher than normal, with the back feet, the ones *not* in the boots. Of course the horses get trimmed today so I hope the boots aren't too big now that he's got them dirty. I measured after a trim so I should have the right size. Maybe we'll take a ride down the road next time and see how it goes.

Then Steph got on Kiko to do some riding for her sale video. She did pretty good. No funny business much to Jeff's dismay. She's not quite up on the cantering thing but she did pick up both correct leads so we called it a success. Hopefully we can pull some of the more interesting things off that clip as Cody was standing in the pasture making horrible perverted noises every time Kiko would pass by (she's in season). And something bizarre happened where Poppy got scared or spooked, freaked out a bit, then laid down to roll.

Application of murphy's law #2: Kalani was not having the canter. Everyone's feet were so long and Kalani kept interfering. He did fine at the trot but when Steph would ask for the canter he'd do this cute little butt hop thing and then kick out at her outside leg. It was quite entertaining. We might be reshooting that one when she can get him to canter properly. Neither of them have been in work since last year so they need some fixer upper lessons.

Application of murphy's law #3: Axel decided he was lame again. I broke out the tall boots, white breeches, velvet helmet, and Axel had the white saddle pad, dressage bridle, and white polos. We looked good! He of course was back to his slow half asleep self. We walked around the pasture to warm up and it was apparent ole "thigh master" was back. Every step I had to use leg to keep him moving. What happend to the past two weeks where he was full of himself and trotting all over the place not wanting to walk. I fully expected to get some video of Axel trying to buck me off after the last two weeks. I asked for a trot and got a very lame gait. So we warmed up some more and tried again, still lame but not as bad. The only thing I can figure is that on the trail rides he had plenty of time to warm up before he started offering up the trot. I probably could have worked him out of the soreness but it was so hot I was already sweating and tired from just keeping him moving at the walk. We might have gotten 15 seconds of a nice sound trot on video so here's hoping.

So Jeff will probably have to come out and video tape again some time. I probably won't be sporting the white breeches but I could keep Axel in the white saddle pad and dressage bridle. Probably skip the polos though they make him look like he has a lot more action than he does. Hopefully I can get him to get me some of the video clips sooner than later and I will add them to this post.

Another Frustrating Night

One day we'll have a breakthrough and both of my horses will be nice, well-behaved, calm animals. Not sure when that will happen though. Last night was another trying night. Tricia brought Cinder and Oly and her neice Lexi. While I decided to do some ground work with Cody, Steph gave Lexi a riding lesson on Poppy in the round pen (part of her birthday/xmas present or something). I didn't want to ride Cody until we had a chance to ride him and another horse (not Kiko) out and see what his attitude was like. And adding in all the extra horses isn't going to to start us out on the right foot. So we went over to work in Tricia's trailer.

He was a sweaty mess by the end. He's gotten to a point where he'll willingly put in two feet
but that's it and he'll stand there calm then all of a sudden fling himself backwards. So then we circle and do some change of direction then try again. Two feet, calm, back out and back in a few times then he flings back wards so we circle. Rinse and repeat. So finally Tricia was standing there watching, he had two feet in and she walked towards him randomly and he jumped in. So we tied him and she shut the door and we tried to give him some grain. He wasn't really interested in eating, he wasn't that calm yet but he wasn't pulling on the trailer tie at all and he wasn't pacing. He was standing there sweating and occassionaly looking out the window at his herd. So after what we figured was as calm as he'd get we opened the door and backed him out. He backed calmly and slowly the whole way, two back feet on the ground then flung himself backwards. So we went right back in and surprisngly he went with no question. We stood at the front of the trailer for 15 seconds or so and he was pretty calm considering so we backed out one more time slowly. This time he got all four feet on the ground without flying backwards so we stopped for the night.

I brought him over to hose him off since he was so sweaty. It was just dripping off of him and I figured he'd just go roll anyway. Goofy horse stands just fine for the scary hose. Unfortunately as I was turning on the hose, he somehow got behind me or something, I can't remember, and as I turned around he moved his head and just clocked me in the face. I now have a bit black welt and a rope burn on my forehead. I should have taken a photo of it last night it was probably a lot worse, it's subsided a lot now. But man it still hurts. He didn't hit my jaw at all but I swear all my teeth rattled on impact. I turned him out and Steph and Lexi were finishing up with Poppy so she got to go out as well.

I had already groomed Axel so he was standing there waiting more or less patiently along with Kalani and Oly and Cinder. We tacked them up and headed down to the trail. Axel seemed to be feeling okay to feisty on the scale of horse attitude. He had a hard time staying behind everyone on the way up the back hill. He was back to his normal slow way down then trot to keep up through the meadow area. As soon as we got to the first little hill in the woods, I collected up my reins and got a buck. Buck buck buck down and up the little hill. The best I can figure, this is not a pain response as he started before he had to do any work walking down the hill. After that he was a little more feisty but not horrible. We made it down the really big hill as slow as possible. I always feel like I'm going head over tea kettle especially on Axel. It was like a vertical drop down. Everyone decided to run up the next side, Axel chose to buck. the. whole. way. It is really hard to pull a horse out of a buck when he's going up hill. Heck I would think it would be hard to buck up a hill period. He and I walked back down and tried again. More bucking. Popular opinion is that he's not using his hind end and pulling himself up the hill. A winter and 8 weeks off from actual work has apparently caused him to forget everything we worked on in the past two years.

The rest of the ride was a little sideways. Axel was good and worked up now and would buck (really wimpy) every time I squeezed the reins. We did some circles in the meadow and he did pretty well. A few minor hiccups and even bucked himself into a really nice right lead canter that I maintained for a while. Left lead, not so much. And let me tell you, Axel's counter canter is not something to be trifled with. Ug so horrible. He made one evil attempt at Cinder's life and all the horse spooked at one point to some mysterious nothing in the woods. The walk back down the hill was a little sideways interspersed with bucks as well. He's becoming quite the handful. Perhaps some more schooling work will get him back to behaving. Despite the crankiness he's still a much more familiar ride for me than Cody. I still don't know all the tricks Cody has up his sleeve so he's a little scary to ride. Axel is pretty consistant and easy to sway. Everyone said he looked really good though. He was moving out (for Axel) and seemed to be feeling good, maybe too good!

I took another really crappy video on my cell phone of the girls trotting around us. Axel was desperate for some grass I wouldn't let him have so you get to see him struggle a bit.

When we returned we had the daunting task of deworming our four as Patti's had been done the night prior. Steph took the honors, thank goodness, I was not up for another fight. Kiko, Kalani, and Axel were fine as usual. Cody put up a fuss. How he knows we are coming at him with dewormer is beyond me. She was finally able to administer it by sticking her finger in his mouth for a while and he relaxed and she was able to shove the wormer in. So it looks like I'll be putting my fingers in his mouth every time I go out there from now on.

When all the dramatics from that were over we tried Cody's new boots on him. I was under strict orders to not let him walk in them as Jeff wants to be there to video tape the hilarity. So we just wrapped his feet in saran wrap so we could make sure they fit without getting them dirty in case we had to return them. His toes are really long right now but they seem to still fit so I think we're good on sizing. Naturally next week we'll be out there the night before the farrier, great timing. Expect some much better video quality of Cody walking around goofy in his new boots for the first time. They look pretty snazzy and everyone was impressed by the easy of getting them on him. I think Jeff might also be taping Kiko and Kalani who are both going to be going up for sale soon.

Naughty Naughty Horses

So the last time Tricia brough Oly out she also brought Rocket and the whole trail ride was kind of a mess. This time she just had Oly. I was taking Cody and Tricia's niece was going to ride Axel, his first real ride in 8 weeks. Cody was nearly in a full sweat while still tied before we even left the barn. I really can't tell you what/who was to blame for the idiocy that ensued, there were too many variables: new horse, no kiko, first ride in 8 weeks, storms coming, you name it.

The ride from the stretchy gate to the bridge was ok. Then Axel trotted down the hill right before the bridge giving Meg a good baseline for what was to come. Most of the ride was Oly in front, Axel in the middle, followed up by Cody. Axel was not his usual slow boring self. Cody was doing just okay for a while. Somewhere in the woods Cody decided he was only going to half pass the rest of the trip and Axel was getting annoyed at Oly. Neither Cody nor Oly would actually walk more than two steps before trying to trot. At one point Axel passed Oly, tried to kick him. Cody joined in on the fun and they both just attacked Oly and ran him into a tree with Tricia aboard. Cody found some new really fabulous dance moves that involved a little spin, just enough to get me off balance, and then a step in the other direction. He was pretty darn close to loosing me a few times with that new technique. He also brought out this really great vertical canter. Think piaffe, but canter not trot. In addition if Axel was behind him he decided to try and kick him the whole time.

When we finally got out of the woods into the clearing we went about our little schooling circles and then things calmed down, at least for Cody. Axel had been showing a bit of bucking on the trail, down the little hill and what not. While trotting on the circle he kept bucking, slightly larger bucks for Axel but still not too bad, Meg sat them just fine and circled him each time to let him know she wasn't going to stand for it. When he just wouldn't stop testing her Tricia got on and circled him several times. Trying to keep it nice and easy since he's out of shape and just off being lame. He, however, had different ideas, going anywhere from offering a canter on the correct lead, framing up and lifting his back, interfering front to back (something the short stepping Axel never does), bucking a bit, grinding on the bit, and executing trot to walk transitions perfectly. I can't even begin to explain what he might have been thinking. Perhaps over his vacation he forgot how to be lazy? Time will tell.

I can't figure out Cody either, on the trail he's just gung ho to get back to the herd. But in that circle, doing some schooling work he's pretty darn good and calm. My only thought is that he knows the circling isn't going anywhere near home, but on the trail we could, at any moment, be heading home and he must be ready for it no matter what. The rest of the ride back to the barn was as spazzy as could be. We did manage to get into the creek for the first time this year. We haven't had a change to scope out the footing ourselves so the three horses just got in, stood for a while, and ate some grass while they cooled their feet.

Once we bounced our way home, Meg rode Oly in the round pen for a while and I took Cody over to Tricia's trailer to see where he was at with that whole thing. He started out blowing at the trailer quite a bit, but put his nose on it. We did a few circles, which were not calm at all, and then tried to see how close we could get. Driving him forward he would only get right up the trailer but wouldn't step in. As soon as I stepped in he put both front feet in the trailer, quite willingly even. So I stopped right there, backed him out and we went back to the herd to get turned out. Next time we'll go for 4 feet. Granted we've done this before and he's fine for practice but not when we want to go somewhere. If we have time we'll put him in, drive down the road and back, and turn him out.

One of the next experiments is to take just Cody and Axel, or Cody and Kalani out on the trail. Eliminate the Oly factor and see how Cody does with Kiko. I feel bad since I know Cody doesn't like direct reining but when he's acting like a total fool it's really hard to let him have his head on a loose rein. I'm slowly getting better but I think he needs to start giving a little back as well before I'll feel confident about neck reining him. I have to say we are quite the misfits when we go riding. Cody is in a black dressage saddle, brown hunter breast collar, western headstall with rope reins. I'm in brown boots and half chaps, tan breeches, and black helmet and gloves. Axel was in a brown western saddle, brown english bridle, and blue bell boots on his hind feet. Soon we'll add black hoof boots for Cody, at least if we go where it's rocky, probably don't need the boots for the back hill, it's all grass. The boots are so funny, unfortunately they came after I was at the barn so I haven't had a chance to try them on him. He's going to hate me even more.

Back in the Saddle

So last night turned out to be just me and the boys. Tricia decided to stay home as it was pretty gloomy all day and Steph got a call back to work as she was pulling into the driveway. I started out grooming Axel. Patti and Scott put up trailer ties on all the posts outside, it sure makes grooming and feeding a million times easier. Axel is getting very shiny these days. Not sure if that's normal or if it's his supplements kicking in. But his tail was awesome, soft and easy to brush. The ends of his tail are about as red as Cody's but the top of his tail is jet black. In the right light I think he's getting his dapples again already. The black flies seem to have subsided at least for now (it was only 60F out) and I haven't found any ticks yet. Patti had sent me some photos of Axel's feet thinking they were getting worse as far as the mud fever was concerned. But turns out they were actually getting better. Last week they were really scabby. This week most of the scabs were gone. His legs are just always that lumpy. I picked the rest of the scabs I could and sprayed him with Betadine and sent him on his way.

I then groomed Cody who is also a very shiny horse this spring. He's not quite as appreciative of the attention and doesn't like to be tied away from his buddies for too long. I ended up talking with Patti for quite a while so it was a good lesson for Cody. After she left and Cody was groomed I went to get my ropes to make a bitting rig and some long lines. I think my bitting rig is a bit long and my long lines are a bit short (go figure). Cody had to stand tied through that and watch me cut and tie the ropes. I grabbed his snaffle bridle and the training surcingle and whip and brought it out to get Cody ready. He was not a fan of the whip and just about ripped the eye hook out of the post trying to get away from it. Yeesh, mistake number 1 I guess. When he calmed down I hooked him up to ground drive. He didn't exactly understand that whole deal. Which stands to reason as he hates direct reining. We made a few turns and I called it quits on that idea and went to the round pen with a real lunge line. I had been just lunging on a 6 foot lead but decided we needed to work on a longer line. A couple of issues we have lunging are 1. walking 2. staying out on the far side of the circle 3. cantering. The whip helped with 2. and 3. The walking we're still not great at. The downward transition from canter to trot was good, and trot to stop. But the trot to walk just isn't happening. He's still always too worked up about leaving the herd. I made a feeble attempt at some lateral work with the whip but my heart wasn't into it so I stopped. The mosquitoes were getting awful so after some fly spray we were done for the night.

I hadn't planned on riding, I had thought about it and decided against it, and then I changed my mind. I hadn't changed into my breeches and I was too lazy to get my helmet out of the car so I just grabbed a helmet from the tack room and a bridle. Way too lazy for a saddle so I took Axel into the round pen. He's sound now (as sound as he gets) and has been off of work for 7 weeks. Tricia's mom is going to ride one of these days so I thought I better get on and see what his attitude was like. He was a bit swishy (which could have just been the bugs) but otherwise he was really well behaved. Surprise surprise he even stood when I had to climb up the fence to get on. He moved out at the walk for once. We just did a few circles and a few direction changes on a loose rein and he was really good about seat aids. So there we have it. Probably a few more rides at the walk before we trot. And a few times at the trot before we head on the big hills. But Axel might be back in business. I still plan to ride Cody a bit more this summer though, he needs the practice more. And if we go out on the trails Cody might be my man as well. Depends on how this trailer loading goes. I have also finally ordered Cody's hoof boots. They should be here today and I can't wait to try them out. I think Cody might feel differently but it'll be nice to be able to walk on gravel without tripping.