First Trail Ride

My weekend was booked with Horse Expo and bridesmaid dress shopping but I still wante to get out to the barn. It was supposed to be super nice all weekend and I didn't want to miss out on it. After work on Friday I braved the traffic and went out to the barn for a quick ride. Axel and I decided to head up the back hill and check out the trail and make sure no trees had fallen. The first trail ride in the spring is always quite a bit faster than subsequent ones. Axel was quite excited and clipped along at a nice working walk. I had already opened all the gates so we didn't have to stop for any of that. We cruised through the woods and back out only running into a few small trees, nearly branches, that had fallen on the path. Nothing we couldn't step over.

I wanted to do some cantering in the meadow area and some nice trotting. We set off in a canter but it was quite bumpy. Axel must have been using his rear end for once. After the first canter he was a little worked up and ready to head back to the barn. I wanted some nice trotting, Axel decided bucking was a better idea. We made a few more passes and tried to work on some trotting in a circle but it wasn't happening quite as I had planned. We ended up doing some serpentines at the walk which were very bendy and nice. After such good bending I got off and let him graze a bit while I took a few photos.

We headed back down the hill and made our un-graceful attempt to close the bridge gate without dismounting. We did it, it wasn't pretty, but we managed. I decided to take a walk down by the swampy area and try to jump over the old log that's down there. We trotted over it the first time. Cantered, bucked, and nearly ended up in the fence the second time. And finally just walked over it the third time. In the end I think I picked 4 wood ticks out of Axel's boots when we were done. Must have been the tall grass in the meadow area.

Dressage Lesson #32

Axel has learned his stuff pretty well. He knows how to use his rear end and bend around my leg. Unfortunately for me, he will only do it if I am riding in the utmost perfect way. Something I am not prone to do more times than not. So I fight and fight to try and get in the right place and put my leg in the right position and hold the reins correctly just to get him to start moving around correctly, and then I instantly loose it. It's been two days since my last lesson and my inner thighs are still killing me.

We tried his new boots this time. He hates them, just like he hated the other support boots we tried. I'm not sure if he'll get used to them or not. Unlike the bell boots or polo wraps which he clomps around in for a while lifting his feet up pretty high, in the combo/skid boots he raised his one back leg all the way up to his belly and then hopped around on the other back leg. The last trim didn't actually help his habit of kicking himself, he did plenty of that this week. Every time we'd stop he try and kick the boots off. I think we'll give them a few more tries before switching back to the bell boots though. I attempted to wear spurs this week as well. I didn't really notice any big difference, maybe if I get the hang of it so I know more when I'm using them and when I'm not. At this point I'm a little worried about our schooling show in August but that could all change. I think we need a few rides where we just stretch out and get a really bit trot, get our riding legs back or something. We'll have to take a ride up the back hill and trot around for a while. Maybe if I can find some time this weekend.

April Showers, Finally

Poor Axel, standing out in the rain.

It wasn't raining when I left the house but the trouble with living 45 minutes from where the horses are, is that the weather can change by the time I get there. I did know it was supposed to rain but I thought maybe it would hold off. Tom opened up the side pasture so all the horses were out grazing on what little grass there is all while getting rained on. I hung around for a while and Beau came up to visit me so I let him in the barn. The last thing he needs is to stand out in the rain and get more rain rot. Axel made his way up to barn so I groomed him a bit, as much as one can while he's soaking wet. Cody hung around for a while as well and let me brush him a bit before wandering back out to the pasture. The rain finally let up so I decided to work with Axel a bit in the round pen. I'd like to teach him how to lunge so we can work a bit on impulsion from the ground. He wasn't quite getting it at the walk, he just kept spinning around. We worked a bit on walk-halt-walk-trot on the lead and he did really well. I actually got him to trot on the lead which doesn't usually happen. And of course Axel's best gait is "whoa." At one point we did get a trot in a real lunge circle but of course at that point it started pouring again.

I let Axel go and ran back to the barn where all the other horses were standing under the overhang. Axel followed be, but of course he didn't go under the overhang. He's so darn timid, I dunno if he thought there wasn't enough room or if he thought the other horses were going to chase him away. I stood there for a while trying to convince him to join the rest of the herd but he wouldn't budge so I got a rope and led him under the overhang. Luckily none of the other horses chased him away and he actually stood there, so I don't think he wanted to stand out in the rain alone. Maybe he went back out there after I left but he was still there before then.

Saturday Tricia and I ran out to the CSDEA tack sale. I picked up a pair of skid/combo boots for Axel and another pair of bell boots. I also got a pair of English style spurs with tiny rowels. We'll give them a try and see if that gets any more energy out of Axel. Hopefully I can use the properly. As of right now it looks like it's supposed to rain again on Tuesday so another day of riding might be postponed.

Just a ride down the road

It was one of those days. Tricia arrived and we decided neither of us was in the mood to really "work" so we decided on a ride down the road. She and I haven't had many rides this past winter like we did the winter before. Just too much going on this year. The horses are still working on shedding their winter coats so after a little bit of grooming we saddled up and headed out. Tricia gave Cody another try and I followed along on Axel. Getting his teeth floated did not affect Axel's speed at all. Nor did the nice weather or "spring fever" or me kicking him in the ribs. Good ole Axel. Cody did his usual routine of trying to turn around to head home, but Tricia's able to nip that in the bud pretty quickly. And I think he actually relaxed a bit when he figured out he couldn't get away with anything. It seems like he'd do pretty well if I had a change to really ride him more often, he catches on quickly. It's too bad I wasn't able to get that gal to lease him this past fall. That would have really helped to have someone ride on a more regular basis.

In any case, we rode down towards the dead end where Axel and I had our little run in with the dog in the past. Very uneventful this time. It looks like the people at the end of the road have moved and taken their poor lonely horse with them. That road turns to a private road a bit further down so we turned around and headed back to the main dirt road. Much to Cody's dismay we didn't head right back to the barn but continued on away from the herd. Axel and I clearly need to work on lateral moves and general moving away from leg pressure. He insists on walking in the ditch even when the ditch is too small, and I have a heck of a time keeping him on a straight line on the edge of the road. Some of that might just be my fault of course. Poor Axel, slow as ever, he's going to cause me to borrow some spurs and try to learn to ride wearing those. At the very least I'm going to have to carry my whip even on trail rides.

When we got to the end of the gravel we turned around and headed for home. Cody managed to keep all his feet on the ground and not bounce home. He even tolerated being told to walk a few steps past the driveway instead of turning in right away. All in all it was a nice evening for a little jaunt down the road. Next "trail ride" we'll have to head up the back hill and see how things stand out there this spring. The ground is finally solid and we won't tear up the grass walking on it. Now if we can just resist the urge to put the horses out to pasture before May, we'll be all the better off.

Let's go to the dentist!

Okay, the dentist actually came to us. While waiting for the farrier and the dentist to arrive yesterday I took a few photos and videos. We have a big race car tire in the pasture that's been mostly neglected (as far as I can tell). I wandered out there and re-inflated it (okay well I just popped out the sides so it was it's full size) and all of a sudden this was the best toy in the universe.

Let's play with the tire!


Kalani bonks Cody with the tire:


Then the dentist arrived and the fun had to stop. I didn't get any good photos because there really wasn't anything to see. The vet works mostly by feel. Both Cody and Axel hadn't ever had their teeth done. After fixing some horrible caudal hooks and some wavemouth, they were good as new, but still dopey. The farrier got a break and was able to trim both my horses while they were still drugged. :) Cody wasn't terribly thrilled with this whole ordeal. He had to be drugged twice.

I can't wait to see if there's an attitude changes after all this. The insides of Cody's cheeks were all callused and his gums were abscessed a bit. No wonder he doesn't appreciate being bridled.

A few wrapped in one

I haven't actually been out to the barn to ride lately (I'm sure you can hear the horses cheering in the background). Last Tuesday we ran out to the barn to feed since Tom was out of town. Everyone got groomed but my two horses were acting quite stupid. It was super windy out so we brought them in the barn two at a time. I'm going with the assumption that it was the wind that had Cody and Axel wound up. Axel's legs were covered in mud so I couldn't completely see if he had any scabs yet but it didn't look like it.

Silly me for thinking now that it's spring I can have the vet/dentist out to float their teeth. It's supposed to snow tomorrow! Hopefully it'll be in the 40s like the weather bug says. We'll probably have to work in the barn so Brad can have power, I'll have to borrow some shop lights from Jeff or something so we can see what we're doing. On top of that the Farrier will also be out tomorrow. So it'll be a fun filled afternoon for the horses. Hopefully I can take some photos.