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.

Gorgeous Saturday and Sunday

I drove out to the barn on Saturday and what did I find? A hay wagon full of hay ready to be unloaded. There was a bunch of family types running around chasing kids and dogs so my ride wasn't very long. I tried to get my goofy IR remote on my camera to work but it didn't quite do what I expected and I was embarrassed to do more experimenting in front of a bunch of people. Hehe. I rode around the pasture a bit before I started getting quite warm. I didn't want Axel to sweat too much again so we decided to stop. Plus one of the dogs was named Axel and they kept yelling at him and I think it really confused Axel the horse! So when I was done riding and had put all my junk away I helped haul hay into the barn. Luckily the bales were not very heavy. The hay looked pretty nice though.

Sunday after our little sleepover at Tricia's, Stephanie and I went back out to the barn to do some work with the horses. She still had an hour left to work with Kiko from the past week. Instead of riding we decided to take the horses for a walk across the bridge and into the woods. Kiko and Kalani haven't been over there yet so it would be a good learning experience. We started with Kiko and Cody. Cody was actually just about an angel with Kiko around. He acts a lot more respectful on the lead than he does under saddle. He even walked up and down the little dip he always wants to run on. Kiko was just fine on the trail as well. We had one minor fight in the usually spot at the top of the hill on the way back. I don't know what his deal is, we were already heading back and he was acting like a total fool. Trying to rear and spin around. Somehow we're going to have to figure out what to do with him. As soon as we started walking down the hill he was fine, especially if his nose was right up Kiko's butt. He even walked the rest of the way back to the barn on a loose lead. I did lunge him and do some ground work when we got back to the barn to try and show him that the barn isn't all that great and it meant working.

It was so warm at this point we lost all our jackets and went to work with Axel and Kalani. Kalani had a tendency to be a bit more spooky so we paired him up with Axel who's as bombproof as they come. The benefits for Axel were that he had a saddle put on him and didn't have to lug around a rider. Axel led like a pro but he really wanted to eat more than anything. I spent a lot of time trying to get him to not eat. It took Kalani a few times across the bridge to really get the feel for it. On the way back he actually lead across the bridge and Axel followed. Kalani was pretty good on the trail on the way out, but on the way back he was acting up and trying to run over Steph. After some ground work with him he calmed down and we went back to the barn in peace. In total we were out there about 2.5 hours. It was a good way to spend a warm November day, that's for sure!

Dressage Lesson #24

Last night's lesson wasn't terrible but it wasn't the best either. Just one of those days I suppose. Steph was lunging Kalani in the pasture to get him used to something besides the round pen. She had planned to ride but he was pretty worked up to say the least. So she's gonna hold off on the riding until later. I tacked up Axel as fast as I could. Not that it really matters, it's dark instantly when I get to the barn. Tricia hadn't arrived yet so I did a few circles at the walk to warm up and things were okay.

We started tracking left this week since that's Axel's more difficult direction. I wasn't totally on and Axel wasn't totally on so it was kind of a mess for the most part. We had our moments that were decent but we also ran into the tree once. And then coming down the long side by the bushes, Axel took a quick side step and darted through them. He may have spooked, in anycase we were now on the wrong side of the trees. He's still loosing it on the corners and most of the time I try and put some outside leg on and he speeds up so now I'm bouncing around trying to not fall off. And I'm supposed to be really supporting him with that outside rein and leg and I just can't get the leverage on that leg, so zoom, off we go falling out of our turn.

Near the end of our lesson Axel was being his usual lazy self and stopping ever few steps. We were getting sick of it and I kicked him a good one (which was nothing at this point my legs were like jello), and he got both back feet off the ground and bucked. But he moved after that and actually felt fairly good. We switched directions and the right side was better but not perfect. There were a few canters in there that were horrible as usual, though on the right lead occassionaly. By the end he was sweating buckets. It was 50F and he's in his full winter coat. So I walked him around to cool him off. This was the first time I've had to use a cooler for him. Unfortunatly I haven't sewn the ribbons on yet and in any case the cooler isn't big enough for him. I'll have to get an old wool army blanket to make into a cooler instead. He finally cooled down so we let him out to roll and then brought him back in for dinner. We dried him off the best we could while he ate and then turned him back out. Hopefully he was dry enough at that point. He must have really been cranky to work up that sweat, we really weren't doing any more work than usual. Though we did start and spend most our time on his bad side.

I need to really work on my seat so I can start giving him the support and cues that he needs to do this stuff properly. Instead of falling out of the turns and me bouncing around not being able to cue and Tricia on the ground yelling "outside rein outside rein!" Luckily she's there to tell me what's going on, there's no way we would have gotten this far even, without her help. Whew!

Sunny Sunday Ride

I met Anne and her son out at the barn today for a ride. Both of her sons were going to come out so I had all three horses groomed and ready to go. But her eldest chose hockey over horses so it was just her youngest son. So Corey lucked out and didn't have to go for another ride this weekend. I rode Cody and Anne and her son doubled on Axel. Bjorn wanted to ride Axel alone so Anne led him around the round pen a few times while I finished fidgiting with Cody. We were all set to go so we headed down the back hill. Axel looked like he was feeling pretty good and he was really stepping out down the hill. Cody was cruising but it turned out he was just trying to distract me while he spun around and tried to head back to the barn. He tried twice before we go to the first gate. After that he wasn't too bad the rest of the way down the hill. We crossed the bridge and made a loop at the bottom of the hill. On the way toward the hill up the back trail Cody decided he was going to take a detour through the woods. Tom's son had cut a new trail so we weren't barreling through the trees or anything, I think Cody thought this was a quicker way home. When we came back out of the loop we were aimed back up the hill; I don't think Cody thought that far ahead.

So up the hill we went and we completed the loop at the top of the hill and came out to the meadow with no issues from Cody. We went for the woods first. As usual Cody was having none of me telling him that we were going to walk down and up the hills. I put a new curb strap on his bit so he was pretty pissed when he realized I had a bit more leverage than usual. He ran down the hill flipping his head all over the place the whole way. A little ways down the trail a tree had fallen in the path so that was the end of that ride. We turned around and headed back out of the woods, stopping on the way to pick some sumac berries for Christmas decorations. Neither horse was overly happy to stand still while we picked berries but we did our best.

Cody managed to walk most of the way down the first hill and could only canter up a few strides before running into Axel's rear. I have no idea what is up with that hill, he refuses to walk it. By this time he was already sweaty. Luckily it was warm and sunny out so he'd dry off quickly. We made a loop around the meadow and then headed for home. We ran into a hunter across the fence when we got to the bottom of the hill. Hopefully we don't ever run into hunters on our trails while we're riding, yikes.

Cody was excited we were heading home so I had to hold him back on the way up the last hill. He's such a goober sometimes. Both horses were sweaty under their cinches and a bit on their chests, but after some rolling they'll be fine. I do have to finish sewing my cooler just in case they get sweaty and it's too cold out. Bjorn rode Axel around the round pen again by himself. After we untacked the horses I still had a lead rope and halter so we grabbed Corey and Bjorn rode Corey around the pasture bareback. He was really cute, cuddling Corey and snuggling into his furry winter coat.

A Fairly Nice Saturday

Went out to the barn today to see if I could get a few things done. It started out kind of overcast but it wasn't freezing so that was good. I let Beau in the barn for his daily buffet while I went out to work in the round pen. Cody and I went to work first. I ran a brush over him quickly and got to work. He actually did the unwinding thing really well on the first try. He used to just back up instead of turning around. After that we worked on some lunging. He does pretty well but he still would rather pay attention to the other horses than me. He'll keep his eyes on me for a few circles and then he stops and watches his herd. We worked on backing up a little, and I tried to do some side passing but that didn't go very well. We also worked on giving to pressure from a rope around his legs. I've finally gotten him to back up a tiny step by wiggling the rope (ala Parelli yo-yo game) and telling him to "back."

Cody was getting bored with me at that point so I moved on to working with Axel. Axel did the unwinding thing well and even crossed his back feet over each other properly in both directions. I couldn't get him to lunge to save my life. He doesn't have much forward drive so he just spun around in circles instead. We walked over a pole a few times and then started working on our backing up. I didn't want to start with backing over the pole with his back feet so I walked him over the pole with his front feet first. Then asked him to back from there. He got it pretty well but he wouldn't pick his feet up all the way and would skim them over the pole. So we worked on that until he tuned out and I decided to stop. I ran a brush over Axel and then turned him loose, which meant he just stood there with his lip dangling. He's really dragging his feet lately, his hooves are all worn flat on the fronts. Hopefully he just needs a trim and it's not something else.

All of the horses were really listless today. They all look so bored this time of year, nothing to graze on, just standing around. I got out the blue tarp to play for a while. Everyone perked up when they saw that. Axel, Kiko, and Kalani followed me back into the round pen to see what the deal was. I left them to play with the tarp for a while while I went to put some things away. I came back out and did some more sacking out with the tarp, Kiko still jumps if you shake the tarp at her but she's getting better. After that I cleaned up the tack room, swept it out, put more feed in the bin, put away a bunch of my junk, and fixed up Cody's bridle.

The sun had come out and I wasn't inspired photographically so I decided I needed to go for a ride. Anne and her kids were maybe planning on coming out on Sunday for a ride so I decided to give Corey a try to make sure he was behaving well enough for a 10 year old to ride. So I tacked him up and down the road we went. We didn't go very far before we turned around. Corey pretty much bounced the whole way back. I half halted the whole way back with no response. Oddly enough he would halt when asked, but he would not walk. So a'bouncing we went. Goofy horse is 28 years old and he still spooks at random things. Luckily he just sprawls out before he regains his composure. He should be fine with Cody and Axel along tomorrow.

Just Some Riding Photos

Just a couple old photos to tide me over until I take some more. Ahhh remember this? It was last September after I had just bought the boys and moved them to their current barn.

A video still from May when we had been working on Dressage for a few weeks.

This one should be entitled "Sit up and heels down!" Because that's what I *should* be doing. But I'm not. :>

And here we are, surprisingly this was shot after the one above. It was like we went from fall back to summer for a while. Too bad that's not the case now. I might be doing more cleaning in the tack room than riding tomorrow. Brrr.

And finally, Jeff shot this one and since he likes squares I cropped it in a square for him. Actually I only cropped it on the left and right, the bottom cropping was original.

Dressage Lesson #23

Another dressage lesson in the dark tonight, so I'm recycling photos from when it was actually light out. I'll have to take some photos this weekend if it's not pouring rain. Axel was feeling quite feisty this evening and went for a canter right off the bat. We let him run with it even though he was on the wrong lead as usual. Since he was offering it we decided to keep asking. He was less than balanced most of the time and Tricia could hear his back feet hitting each other. And the more cantering we did, the more annoyed he got and he'd start bucking, almost real bucks this time that I had to pull him up from to get him to stop. Tricia figured he doesn't canter much because his feet hit each other. If it hurts, why do it, right? I've been putting bell boots on his back feet but I might have to add the neoprene boots as well so he's fully protected. Last tiime we put the boots on him he was not overly happy with them, they're hand-me-downs, so I might need to pick up a pair of new ones that aren't worn out. We got a few more canters out of him, ending with one that was on the correct lead but it sure wasn't fun to ride. He was pretty much pulling himself along with his front legs which makes it feel like his butt is way up in the air.

After all the excitement we worked on the spiraling in and out around a barrel. He was just about through with us at that point and wasn't really into it any more. We tried getting some circles at the trot but they were more like flattened eggs or amoebas. So we tried a large oblong shape and then a circle to try and trick him into engaging his hindquarters. Circling to the left was the toughest, and of course the last direction we went. Next time we're going to start with the left. Wow it's hard to ride in the dark though. I can't wait for it to be light out again. We'd be going around in a circle sort of okay and I'd shift my focus or move my head and off we'd go out into the pasture. And since I can't see a darn thing but the white barrel we were going around it's quite disorienting. Amazingly enough, even in the dark, he hasn't been tripping nearly as often. He kind of looses his footing once or twice in the dark but he must be picking up his feet more these days. And so far the temperature hasn't been an issue for me. I'm usually working so hard I work up a sweat even when it's only 30F outside. Luckily we've worked Axel enough this year that an hour of trotting doesn't really make him sweat at all. I should sew the straps on my cooler just incase I need to use it ever though.

After the lesson I fed Axel in the barn since the other horses were already finished eating. Tricia and Steph had to give Coco, the barn cat, a shot of wormer because he's infested pretty bad. Hopefully when the worms are gone he'll slim down a bit, he's huge these days. And since we weren't done chatting at that point, we went into Carver to a little barn to continue our conversations where it was warm.

Riding in the Dark: Dressage Lesson #22

That Axel never ceases to amaze me, sometimes good and sometimes not so good, of course. Tuesday I decided to go out to the barn and try and have a lesson, even if it was dark. I rushed through grooming and tacking and jumped on right as it was getting almost too dark to see. I thought we'd be okay since it was a full moon but it ended up being cloudy. I had 15 minutes before Tricia was due to arrive so I set out to warm Axel up a bit. He was so good. He was walking out like he had a mission, even in the dark. We did a couple walks around the "arena" in both directions. I barely had to ask for a trot and off he went. We did a couple figure 8s at the trot and when he'd stop without being asked, I'd ask for a back up. He's not great at backing so we have to keep working on that. We moved up to the round pen where I thought we could see better. Axel wasn't terribly excited about the round pen but we made a couple circles around at the walk when Tricia arrived.

We went up to the paddock to meet her and I think Axel decided he was done at that point. Maybe he should have been but we had only worked for 15 minutes. To make matters worse, Tom came out and fed the rest of the horses right as we were getting started. We moved into the other pasture and started at the trot extending on the long ends. Then we worked on spiraling in and out on a 10m circle. It took quite a bit of work to get Axel to spiral in and out the right way. After we did that in both directions we worked on some 10m circles trotting before we finished up.

A gal came out to meet Cody. She might be interested in leasing him part time which would be a great help to me. I'm hoping if someone rides him on a more regular basis he'll shape up nicely. Right now he gets ridden less than once a week, and though he's probably happy with that arrangement he needs more work than that. He was kind of acting like a fool when she came out to see him though. He was mad he wasn't out with Kiko eating hay. He wouldn't stand still and kept rocking back and forth. She was trying to groom him and pick his feet but he wouldn't pick them up for her. So generally just being the embarrassing child in front of guests. I invited her to come ride this weekend so she can get a little better taste than just seeing him in the barn. Hopefully she'll take me up on it. Granted having the extra money would be great but having Cody back working on a regular basis would be really great.

Awesome Dressage Lesson #21

I snuck out of work early so I could get a lesson in before it was dark. And boy am I glad I did. I was a little worried it'd be too cold since it went from 60F yesterday to 30F with a pretty low windchill but it turned out pretty nice. I did a tiny bit of ground work before I groomed and tacked up. Tricia put the bell boots on Axel and off we went. We might have to call them "magic bell boots" because he really picks up his feet when he wears them. We worked on some basic trotting, extending on the long sides and slowing down on the ends. He started to really get moving when asked and once again offered a canter (on the wrong lead). He seems to pick up the canter when I put pressure on with my outside leg. I assume he wasn't trained for the canter cue so it's kind of fun that he goes for it. Too bad he never picks it up correctly and we miss our turn. We had a really nice canter in the other direction as well but he gave it up before the turn.

We switched to crossing the diagonals at X so he could work on bending both directions. Axel really started to "get it" then. He'd extend really nice on the diagonal, make the turn collected, and then pull out of the second turn and extend right away. After several rounds we worked on some transitions. The first trot to walk transition really blew us out of the water when he kept his rear under himself and really went into the walk nicely. Our walk is still slow and it's not quite an easy task getting Axel into the trot, but he's getting better. And finally we worked on backing up a couple times inbetween. He's really coming around.

A Trail Ride and a Picnic

Jeff had "reminded" me that I wanted to go on a trail ride and have a little picnic on top of the hill overlooking the creek. So we packed up the essential October picnic supplies (hot chocolate, cookies, fruit, and goldfish crackers) in the picnic basket and headed out to the barn. We decided to make it a very short trail ride so we could picnic before it got dark. We dropped off the picnic basket at the top of the hill and headed for the woods.

I still can't get Cody to walk down and back up the little dips in the trail. I start reminding him long before the hill that we're going to walk but when he gets to it he bites down on the bit and just runs. On the way back he ran all the way from the first big dip to the big tree before I got him to stop. On the way out of the woods he was set to head home but the plan was to go back to the top of the overlook for our picnic. Cody was not pleased with this idea and it took a few circles to get him to move forward in the right direction. My dressage saddle was slipping back so far on him, he was rewarded with not only a big patch of grass to graze in but I took the saddle off as well. We tied them to some trees and had our little picnic.

It was dark by the time we packed up to go home so I had to tack up Cody by feel. As soon as I have some extra money I'm going to find out how much it costs to have new billet straps put on my saddle. I cannot work with the ones on it right now. It took me three adjustments to get the saddle on right before I could mount without everything coming down on top of me. And Cody being more than ready to go home, did not appreciate the extra wait. I think Axel was acting pretty decent the whole ride, Jeff might argue otherwise but Axel is always an angel compared to Cody lately. So we rode back down the hill in the dark which was a new experience for me. It's a little scary actually. The horses knew the way and can probably see a lot better in the dark than we can so we made it back in one piece.

Tom had already fed the remaining horses so we fed Cody and Axel, shooed Beau out of the barn, and headed for home.

Oh I nearly forgot one thing ;) Jeff and I got engaged during our picnic!

Dressage Lesson #20

Apparently Axel went on a little sight seeing adventure yesterday before dinner. Tom came out to feed and all the horses were in the paddock and front pasture calling. He could hear another horse calling back from a distance. He looked around and noticed something was not right when he realized Axel was missing. Assuming the worst he grabbed a halter and lead rope and headed down the back pasture. He noticed some hoof prints on the wrong side of the fence near the one end of the pasture near the creek. As he came around to the opposite side of the pasture there's Axel, standing on the bridge waiting for someone to open the gate for him. Not sure how long he had been waiting, he had relieved himself on the bridge while standing there so he must have been waiting for a while. So I'm glad he made it back but yikes, maybe I should consider getting the horses microchipped just in case.

So after I dug all the burrs out of his forelock, mane, and tail, Axel was good as new. It was back to riding this time. Axel was acting kind of weird at first, really foaming up a lot with gross green foam. He wouldn't drink any water so we just went on with our lesson. He was pretty spunky at first for a few seconds. He slowed down a bit once we started working which meant a bit of leg work on my part. We were working on getting him to have some momentum. Tricia hopped on for a few minutes so I could see the difference in momentum and no momentum. Boy he's looking good though. I got back on and Tricia tortured me with some rider stretches which promptly left me with cramps in both my upper legs. Then she tortured me even more by taking away my stirrups to work on some sitting trot and keeping momentum. I'm still very bouncy but she said my leg position is a lot better without stirrups. My response was that I was using my legs to hold me on the horse. So all in all it went very well and we're making progress with backing under saddle. I probably won't be able to walk tomorrow though.

Jeff and I have a trail ride planned for tomorrow. Supposed to be the nicest day of the week.

Long Lining - Lesson #19

We decided not to ride last night. Instead we went for a long line lesson. Basically driving the horse from the ground with really long reins. And it's a lot more complicated than it sounds, especially when you throw in a carriage whip. Tricia started out with Axel to show him the ropes (no pun intended). Axel was a little confused at first but he picked it up alright. Tricia drove him around a bit at first and then handed the reins over to me. As usual, Axel was less than speedy. We had to make quite a bit of noise with the whip to get him moving, and even then he wasn't really fazed by it. I couldn't quite handle the whip and the reins at the same time so Tricia followed along with the whip for a while. It seemed like he understood once he figured out that he shouldn't be waiting for leg cues. It was a pretty weird thing for me to get the hang of. Maybe we'll try it again sometime. We definitely need more ground work, that's for sure.

Another Trail Ride

I thought I'd just update here about Sunday's trail ride. It wasn't Cody or Axel though. Jody, Sandy, some of Jody's family members, and I went out to Minnesota Harvest for a trail ride and some apple picking on Sunday. I'm less and less a fan of the Rent-A-Horse type places but since there's only 3 horses that we could ride where Cody and Axel live, that doesn't leave a lot of options for a group of 6. I rode a spunky little QH named Buster. And by spunky I mean, hadn't been a trail horse for very long, wnated to lead the group, and spooked at invisible things in the woods. He did only spook once and handled it pretty well. I asked for a horse that would move out and he was pretty good in that department. We went for an hour trail ride which really is short. Part of the ride (pictured) went through some really nice woods, I wished we would have had more of the ride there actually. Jody's littlest sister was on a little pony named Winkie. The trail leader did keep her on the lead line, and Jordan had a death grip on the saddle horn for the whole hour. But she did declare that she loved horses, just not "nuts" horses, and she asked her dad for a "Winkie." Dad said no. As our last trail ride, Jody got put on one of the smallest horses, and this time, the slowest horse. Everyone else's horses were fairly well behaved. Sandy was on a mare and she wasn't too fond of Buster being behind her. Jody's dad was on a nice Appy that had a gorgeous headset. And Jesse's horse just plodded along like a typical trail horse. The trail leader was really nice and talked with Jordan the whole time. I half thought that might be a fun weekend job giving trail rides, but then I'd never have time to ride my own horses. And I don't think my rear end would ever forgive me.

Fall Trail Ride

I've changed up the blog a bit with a nice grassy theme.

Ok so I'm not the best photographer lately. I took two photos today on the trail ride. Oh well. Anna and Tricia came and picked me and Axel up in Anna's fancy 4 house slant load. Axel jumped right in like a champ. Of course he was most concerned with trying to see Olly on the other side of the divider and gave me a heck of a time trying to snap his halter. We cruised down to the state trail 4 miles away and attempted to unload the horses. And by "attempt" I mean Axel did not want to back out of the trailer. Being a slant load there's no room to turn around safely. Tricia and Anna fought and fought and he would not budge. He did get himself to the edge of the trailer and stepped down with one foot but he went right back in. Finally he got the best of them and turned himself around. At that point it wasn't safe to turn him back around so we let him exit.

After resting a bit and gathering all our junk, we tacked up the boys and headed for the trail. As we guessed, Little Man and Olly were much faster than Axel so we had to trot every few minutes to catch up. I couldn't quite convince him that if he stepped out a bit more he could walk just as fast as they were. We had a few canters that went pretty well. At one point Axel passed Olly (albeit ears pinned as he did it) and seemed to enjoy the fact that he pulled ahead of another horse. Highlights of the ride were: All three horses jumping a big rotten log in the middle of the path, one right after another. Full out galloping up a hill and Axel actually making it the whole way and kept going once we got to the top. And finally, Axel actually whining because he was too tired to keep up with the other horses on the way back.

I think we rode for 2 hours or so. Axel was mighty tired by the end and he's probably going to be sore. I couldn't find the bute so he's gonna have to take it easy. We'll probably have a long line lesson on Tuesday instead of riding. He jumped up in the trailer to head home without an issue. But as prior he wouldn't back out so we had to turn him around to get him out. I think along with the long line lessons he's going to get backing lessons. Maybe I can get Jeff or Dad to build a little fake bridge to practice on. It would be helpful for the young horses to learn to step up on and good for Axel to learn to step off of.

Dressage Lesson #18

Who put a quarter in Axel tonight? Please put one in him every day! Tricia was a bit late as she was tending to her dog that got caught in a trap (she's fine though). I grabbed a lead rope and halter and did a tiny bit of ground work with Axel. I couldn't get him to bend this time but he did the unwinding thing on the first try. I groomed him but this time of year it's kind of pointless, it just ends up making them look dirtier the more you brush. I walked him around a bit and watched Steph work with the kids while I waited. When Tricia arrived we worked on the road end of the pasture and just stuck to an arena shape, no fancy patterns. I dunno if it's the new saddle or the longer warmup or just a fluke, but Axel moved out. He extended his trot for once and I was able to post the trot like a normal person. He needed very little encouragement to keep going and was really rounding and bending properly. He actually even gave me a couple canters. Ok, so it was on the wrong lead and we couldn't make our corner but a canter is like light years faster than his normal speed so we went with it. Still struggling with the sitting trot but it'll get there. I think my legs will be sore tomorrow, not from kicking this time though but from trying to cue properly for the turns. So a big gold star for Axel tonight!

This past weekend we decided that next August Axel and I are going to do the Pine Meadows Schooling Show. We'll probably do intro dressage. So we have a little under a year to prepare. Hehe. I can't wait to get him all spiffed up for a show.

Stephanie was working with Kalani in the round pen doing some long lining. She probably had him working for an hour or more when she yelled something down to Tricia and I. We look up at the round pen and Kalani is laying on the ground. Apparently she asked him to do something and he couldn't figure out what it was she wanted and so he just layed down. He ended up laying there for a good 5-10 minutes before getting up and going back to work. Tricia was laughing so hard. Hopefully Axel didn't pick up any hints from Kalani, that's the last thing I need is him laying down in the middle of a lesson!

Saturday and Sunday

Saturday Steph decided it was time to try and ride Kiko and Kalani. So I went out to provide any help she might have needed. Afterwards we went out to the fairgrounds to get ready for our WCR demo. We ended up warming up the horses by riding them around for a while.

On Sunday morning Anne called and planned to come out to the barn with her 3 year old son for a little trail ride. I went out to the barn a bit early and rounded up the horses and got them groomed. Axel is still kicking the heck out of his own ankles, this time a lot higher than normal, so I wrapped his back legs for the ride. Anne and Bjorn rode Axel double in the big western saddle and I rode Cody with my dressage saddle. I'm really starting to like the new saddle and the ride went really well. Cody didn't protest quite as much as normal. Axel was pretty good and seemed happy. Right after we made it back to the barn it started to rain a bit, we had perfect timing.

Saga of the New Saddle - Dressage Lesson #17

So I finally got to try out my new saddle for real. When I arrived at the barn the horses were already up waiting. They must have been hungry or anticipating the storm. Either way I was able to catch Axel and not have to fight to get him to follow me anywhere. The left side of his spine is still touchy, if I run the curry down that side he flinches but if I press really hard he does nothing. So who knows what that means, hopefully just ticklish. He's black again now that his winter coat is growing in but he's still dirty as ever and brushing him just brings the dirt to the top. Tricia peeked at my new saddle and thought I probably got quite a good deal. She brought her dressage girth for me to try and it fit much better than the one I borrowed. Unfortunately I looked that girth up online and it's 60 bucks. Yikes. When I tried to mount it was evident the saddle is too wide because it slipped around when I put weight in the stirrup. Guess we'll be mounting from a block from now on! It's not so wide that it bangs on his withers at all, just doesn't stay put quite as well. For the price I paid, it's all workable.

We got out the cones again to help inspire Axel as he's been Axel McCrankyPants lately and he seems to enjoy the cones. Overall the lesson went pretty well. Compared to the last lesson I barely had to use my legs at all (that's comparatively though). But the new saddle is going to take some time to get used to, it puts me in a position I haven't been riding in so I'm going to be finding new sore spots for a few weeks. Hopefully I'll get a chance to do some trail rides in the saddle to give me some time to get used to it. It is comfortable though. We still have some issues with turning corners, and me flailing about not getting my seat under me didn't help me help Axel at all. But near the end of the lesson there were a few really great turns, one loops around the cones actually, where he started to really get it so we stopped.

Tricia actually hopped on at that point to give the saddle a try. She agreed that it was quite comfortable. Next time she gets on I'm going to have to take a video because Axel really looks good. She had him turning those corners like (almost) an expert. He's no barrel horse of course ;) She had him stepping out and he looked like he actually had some impulsion for once. He drags his feet though and kicks himself. We're gonna try some bell boots on his back feet so he doesn't hurt himself. But the picking up the feet will have to be some ground pole work I think.