Two More Rides

Axel: Went out to ride Axel to see if we could fight through that left lead issue we were having. The best part about Axel is we can fight and fight and fight over whatever, leads or contact or trotting, but as soon as I get off he's friendly and wants to stand next to me. I guess he doesn't hold any grudges.

1. Relax in barn/arena - crosstied for grooming and Axel was very calm until Jason came in and chatted with us for a while. He wasn't close enough for Axel to smell or beg at so he got mad and started yanking on the leads.
2. Relax in stall
3. Back off trailer
4. Lunge 3 gaits - when I finished riding and couldn't get that left lead I decided to try and lunge a bit. Axel was a little worked up about it and let out a few nice bucks and kicks. Right lead was no problem, left lead he still wasn't getting. Third try or so I was about to back him down to a trot when he switched his lead. Flying lead change! So that was the end of the lesson.
5. Move out - we moved out a bit at the trot but it wasn't with any sort of collection at all.
6. Use haunches - started some work with shoulder fore in prep to try and learn shoulder in, travers, and renvers. I figured that should help us use our haunches and get some more flexibility for cantering on that bad side.
7. Canter both leads - we rode for a while and Axel was trying to run the show. When I wanted to extend the walk he wanted to trot, when I wanted to trot he wanted to canter (or buck). We were still unable to pick up that left lead.

Cody: I'm trying to back up and go a little slower with Cody so instead of bringing him into the barn I just did a really quick attention activity with him in the pasture.

1. Relax in barn/arena
2. Relax in stall
3. Pay attention to handler - started working on the activity where I stand in front of Cody near the end of the lead and he's to only pay attention to me. If his attention wanders, I flip the lead rope to get his attention back. He was calm and comfortable in his pasture so he was pretty willing to stand there and stare at me.
4. Lunge 3 gaits
5. Gain confidence with rider
6. Load and unload

My second ride came when I drove out to Tricia's farm to ride Oly for her since she's been banned from riding horses. Oly was just about as obnoxious as Axel has been. Constantly yanking the reins out of my hands. I'm surprised my shoulders don't hurt more than they do. It was nice to know that it's not just my horse that acts like a fool. After riding 3 times in the past 2 days walking is a difficult task.

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.