A Good Ride

After Sunday's wet trail ride we had left all the blankets and whatnot laying around the barn to dry. So when I got there last night I got everything put away and discovered that some of the lead ropes were still wet and my grooming box was still damp and had water in the bottom of it.

The horses have decided to see if they can find any grass in the one clump of trees in the pasture. The clump of trees that is not cleared out at all. So when I went to fetch Axel, he along with part of Kalani, Papillon, and Daley were hiding in the trees. That's the first time I've seen anyone in there, it's pretty thick and hard to get around. It was reported that the horses were quite cranky yesterday after the trail ride on Sunday but Axel seemed to be in an acceptable mood and followed me willingly back to the barn. No one else followed us though.

After I groomed Axel and scratched some of his bug bites we went out in the yard where he helped mow the lawn while I cleaned out my grooming box. He was not pleased when I was done and wanted him to go back into the barn. I finally got around to switching back to my regular dressage blanket instead of the nice white one and I re-situated the therapy pad under the saddle so everything is all ship shape now. Axel has apparently grown into his dressage bridle. Originally we thought it was way too small but now it seems to fit alright. I doubt it would fit with the flash but I haven't found any reason to use a flash so it's probably lost in my tack trunk anyway.

When we got out to the pasture to school Steph arrived to work on some lunging with Kalani in the same pasture. I let Axel have several slow paced warm up laps at the walk. I worked on not nagging him so much if he was going in the right direction. He was tending towards the gate though so our mosey had to come to an end. We had our usual disjointed and random trotting. The pasture is just enough bumpy that Axel can't keep a good steady pace and kind of stumbles all over instead of trotting nicely. After a bit of that I asked for a canter on a long stretch. Axel gave me the canter, didn't protest and it went quite nicely. I asked for a canter a second time. This time I was pretty sure I even got the other lead (albeit the wrong one). Because I wasn't totally sure I asked one more time, I got the left lead in the correct direction. I switched directions, asked again, this time I got the right lead. Yipee! I just about flew off his back when dismounting. Two canters on each lead with no bucking or putting his head between his legs, that's a winner in my book. So Axel got un-tacked and left to graze right then and there.

Steph was still working Kalani who was doing a fabulous Saddlebred interpretation with his tail so I got Cody out to do a little ground work. I don't think we've done anything since Andrea started riding. He was a little wound up about it and not terribly calm. He also was having issues going to the left. Speeding around and when I asked for a canter he'd disunite after the first stride. He was looking slightly off so I think part of it was just sore from the trail ride and getting reshod the day before. Once he gave me a real canter we stopped that and worked on just a little bit of backing up and standing still. And then he got to graze a bit too.

Mud Everywhere!

Where to even start? As usual we did our best to meet at the barn and get everything loaded up on time if not early and I think we actually succeeded this time. However it was raining and so we probably stood around a bit longer hoping it would stop. When it didn't really, we hooked up the trailer and loaded horses and were on the road about 10 minutes after we planned to actually be at the park. For this trip we went with Cody and Axel in the front and Kiko and Kalani in the back. Cody got in with a little help from the tapping stick, no big deal. Axel is always a champ and jumps right in. Kiko and Kalani had a bit of trouble but nothing major. I just managed to get stepped on by Kalani as he decided to exit prematurely. Ended up with a bruise on my thigh that you can't actually see.

At some point the rain let up, the horses were tied to the trailer at the park happily munching away at some hay. We were all getting our paperwork turned in and having some lunch when it started raining for real. And it rained and rained and didn't show any signs of letting up. Though once we finally gave in and went to tack horses it did let up for a while. We managed to make most of the ride either under the trees out of the rain or with just minor sprinkling. We didn't, however, miss out on any of the mud. At one point we came to a spot in the trail that was mud all the way across. A really wide part of the trail too. Anne and Cinder tried to make a new trail through the trees but ended up in some low area and Cinder went up to his chest in mud, Anne bailed and they both decided that was not the place to cross. We finally managed to get everyone across the mud on the opposite side. The trip back Kiko decided to jump over the mud which was an interesting feat to say the least.

Overall the ride went well. Cody managed to walk most of the trail with only a few minor bouts of needing to trot in place, and it was the first time Andrea rode him in the rope hack and the first time he was ridden in the rope hack with all sorts of unknown horses around. Axel found his soul mate when it comes to trail rides, Alissa's horse Pacman is just Axel's speed. Darrel might have been pushing Axel a bit to walk up but I think if he was given a choice Axel would have hung back with Pacman all day. Kiko was her normal sane self and didn't even bat an eye when other mares joined our group. Kalani had a few issues just with the new horses and not knowing them and wanting to check everyone out. Other than that everyone survived (and there was not spastic cantering for me yipee). It would have been nice if the weather was better and perhaps more people would have made it out but we did raise over our targeted amount for We Can Ride so that was great! And we found a nice new leg of the trail. We usually head East on that trail so this time we opted for West. From that particular parking lot to the end of the trail to the West is about 3.5 miles. So it was a nice short little round trip (7 miles total). The East leg of the trail from the main parking/camping area to the highway is about 6.5 miles so that's a lot longer and, as we found out, a lot sandier. The West leg is wide grassy trail which is a nice change of pace. Had it not been raining there would have been a lot of nice spots for trotting or cantering.

So when all was said and done we packed all our stuff back up and decided to put Cody and Kalani in the front this time. We thought Kalani was just too long for the back of the trailer. Turns out Axel is also too long for the back of the trailer but he did fine and it was a short trip. Another discovery was that Cody is quite calm when asked to back out of the trailer "lead rope over his back" style. In fact he backed halfway through the trailer by himself and then stopped and looked around for a person to guide him the rest of the way out. Axel still insists on turning around to get out. That one might take a while to get figured out.

A lot of luck

It is a great surprise that I don't hurt more than I do today. Last night's ride was quite the interesting one. It started out innocent enough. I brought in Axel and Kalani after watching them run up the hill to the barn. Axel has some how gotten himself a weird scab under his chest right where those two muscles line up to a "V" right behind the girth. Presumably he scraped himself with his foot getting up from laying down. In any case it apparently really itches and he really enjoyed me rubbing on it.

Tricia brought Oly over and we decided, since it's getting dark at 8pm now, going to the trail would be more hassle than it's worth. We tacked everyone up, did our best to get past the rest of the heard with Oly, and went down the back hill to ride in the meadow. Steph wanted to school Kalani at the canter and Axel needed a bit of that as well. The circle we ended up making was a little less than ideal, there was a pile of branches we had to jump over with each circle. It wasn't really big enough to have to jump but Axel must have thought that was good fun. More than once we jumped it and cantered out of it. He actually offered up the canter himself quite a few times. I still have a hard time riding his trot in a field like that, I never know where his feet are going (nor does he) and his strides are all uneven and bumpy but we managed alright. I think Steph even got at least one canter out of Kalani after a series of his cow kicking.

As we were schooling on top the hill Patti showed up on Daley for a ride so we decided to follow her through the woods and whatnot. She took the short cut down the hill and was going to go up the big hill. She asked what we wanted to do and everyone thought cantering was fine. Axel has been know to buck up that hill this year so supposedly I was ready for it. Well he bucked, and bucked, and bucked. And usually he gets tired and stops midway through the hill. Right about the time I expected him to get tired, I lost my stirrup and my balance and started falling forward. He kept going and I ended up staying on but had a huge pile of mane in my hand by the time I regained control. How I stayed on I'm not quite sure. I recall yelling, "I'm good I'm good" as I probably looked like I was about to end up on the ground.

After that portion of the ride Oly started acting the fool trying to scratch on the trees (turned out he had an itch under his saddle). He ended up acting like an idiot until we got back down across the bridge. Prior to that we went for a canter in the meadow on the straightaway. I figured after the hill bucking I needed to get some sort of good canter out of Axel. Daley lead and Axel followed close behind and it was a really nice calm canter. Right as I was pulling Axel up beside Daley so we could stop before the ground dipped, Daley spooked and jumped sideways towards us so Axel jumped sideways as well, he kept cantering and almost lost me a second time. Patti and I both managed to stay on even after loosing our stirrups and probably looking quite ridiculous. Steph lost her sunglasses while cantering and Oly tried to jump over them. So all in all it was probably quite the site. I decided that after 2 saves like that my luck may have run out and I needed to head back to the barn just in case.

After removing Oly's saddle twice on the way back down he finally started acting like a normal horse, we still aren't sure what his deal was there was nothing on him but he apparently itched like mad. I decided we needed one more canter up the sand hill so Axel cantered up, really well I might add and then Steph and Kalani followed. Tricia and Patti went around the opposite way and we met up at the middle of the hill. So 2 almost falls, 1 horrible bucking fit, and 2 good canters. We're hoping the trail ride on Sunday goes a lot better.

Guests

Yesterday since Loni was in town with Damin for the bachelor party we decided to go out and ride a bit while the boys were partying. I had debated on if I should put Loni on Cody or Axel. Usually I would put guests on Axel but since he's been a bit troublesome lately I thought maybe Cody would be a better choice for an inexperienced rider. So Loni and I fetched the horses from the pasture and got them both groomed up. We opted for western saddle and rope hack on Cody and dressage saddle on Axel (thank goodness for mounting blocks in the pasture). We started just in the side pasture to get the feel for things and see how it went. We walked and trotted a bit and everyone seemed well behaved and calm so we decided to venture out on the trail.

We did the usual trail loop minus the big hill (we took the short cut to the small overlook) and everyone was calm as could be. They both even walked down and up the little dip that they are notorious for trying to run. We even had a trot in the meadow near the end of the ride. Cody might have spent an inordinate amount of time with his head lower than usual. I'm not sure if he was trying to eat or trying to figure out the horse hair tassel on his mecate (I might have to retie that so it doesn't tickle him in the chin). And the more I think about it Axel had his head on the ground a lot too and not for eating. He kept smelling things that weren't visible at least to my eyes. There was one point when Cody tripped a bit and caught himself but scared Loni a bit. And on the way back I decided I wanted to canter Axel up the smallish hill between the woods to see if he'd do it without bucking. I told Loni I thought Cody would just trot to keep up but I guess I was wrong. He went right from a walk into a canter and gave her another little scare but it wasn't too major and he stopped right away.

We had a minor scare when we got back to the barn. Cody didn't see the horses on the way up and started freaking out once we dismounted. He actually ended up leading Loni back down to the pasture to find the rest of the herd. They were actually over in the new part of the pasture behind the house and he couldn't see them. All I could think was that the horses had gotten out again but I couldn't figure out how that was possible since we shut all the gates. Luckily Cody helped us find them.

When we got him back up to the barn and untacked we had brought some beer and apples as treats. I thought maybe the horse would like some Guiness but Cody and Axel turned up their noses and waited for the apples instead. We brought the bucket of beer out to the pasture to see if anyone else would enjoy some. In the end Papillon was the only one that drank any beer. Kalani and Kiko put their noses in it, Gunner put his nose in it and promptly backed away with the "smells bad" face, Poppy made the same "smells bad" face and Daley didn't care or grace us with his presence. So either my horses want ligher beer or they just don't like beer at all. I was kind of disappointed.

Axel's not so evil twin

It was cloudy and raining and not so great on Tuesday so I decided not to go to the barn, no one else was going to make it out anyways. So I made it out on Wednesday instead, and alone this time as well. The mecate reins I ordered had arrives so I wanted to try them out on Cody's rope halter ala "natural hackamore" style. Bosal's are pretty spendy and I'm not sure what size to get for Cody yet so I figured I'd try out the rope halter as a hack. The reins I bought are really inexpensive and really stiff. They might just have to be that way for a while, I was thinking of washing them to soften them up but since they are nylon I'm afraid they will actually get stiffer or just icky to touch. Guess that's what I get for going the cheap route! If this works out well for Cody I might upgrade to a sampson rope mecate if I can find one that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

So I hopped on Cody bareback and we just went for a quick spin around the side pasture. He was great. Very sensitive to leg and rein cues as well as each individually. He seemed pretty happy with the lack of bit as well. Despite his obvious want to go hang out at the gate with his friends he followed my instructions willingly. So I called the experiment a success and hopped off.

I gathered Axel and got him ready for some schooling work as well. As I was about to mount up Andrea and Patti arrived and sat on the step of the house chatting while I rode. We did some really nice free walk and a bit of trotting on a loose rein trying to get him moving freely. He has such a hard time finding where to put his feet, he's very unsure of himself and trips a lot. It might be time to start trotting over poles. When we had done some good trotting and worked on some collecting and figure 8s I started asking for a canter just going in a big loop around the pasture. Nothing too serious, no sharp turns or anything that should make things more difficult for him. He tried and was slightly annoyed mostly when passing the gate to the barn. I switched directions and got the same sort of annoyed response. Usually followed by 1 maybe 2 strides of canter. Finally I think on our third time in the original direction I got at least 4 nice canter strides, asked him to stop, and nearly jumped off him as a reward. We'll have to keep working on it, I think he just isn't sure of himself but who knows. At least there was no bucking or throwing his head down (sadly it might have to do with the fact he didn't have to catch up to anyone).

When I was done Andrea and Patti went to get Cody and Daley and were on their way for a little bareback ride on the trail. From the sounds of it Cody stood by quite patiently while Andrea experimented with methods for mounting bareback. I guess he was a very good boy.