October 9, 2011
On Saturday, October 8, 2011, I rode the NAGBRAI 2011 trail ride. It was a fun time riding from the Eldon fairgrounds to Pioneer Ridge Nature Center and through part of the Nature Center. I don't normally care for large groups of riders as I often find discourteous riders who have little or no idea of safety on horseback. I would like to say this ride changed my opinion but it didn't. I am amazed at riders who think nothing of not warning someone else that they are over taking when riding at a trot or a lope. There were also the rocket scientist who thought they needed to be riding in the on coming traffic lane especially in some areas where we had blind curves. The most discourteous ones were those who left a watering point before others were mounted and ready to go. I don't want to sound completely negative because I did have fun, spent the day in fresh air and sunshine, met so nice folks, and got to spend so quality time with Star.
Star did very well except she was stuck on "GO" the whole trip. She wanted to be on the lead the entire route but she held up well and made me proud. We also had a lot of compliments on her and her attitude. Some thought she had great ground manners but I had to tell them it was all an act because she can be a terror. LOL I think even Star enjoyed herself.
Wednesday October 5, 2011
This morning I decided to deal with some of Star's issues. She has gotten to the point that she doesn't like to stand still while I mount her. She wants to dance away from the mounting block, side of the trailer, or whatever I am using to get on her. Since it was a nice morning I figured now was the time to deal with it. There was also the fact that I am planning on riding Star Saturday on NAGBRAI.
I got my tack all ready in front of my South barn then coiled the lead rope over my shoulder stuck a rope halter in my back pocket headed through the gate to catch up Star. As I turned from fastening the gate I see Star trying to sneak through the other horses towards the other gate. It is pretty hard to miss a 15 hand yellow horse in a bunch of 14 - 14.2 hand sorrels and roans. I never said this was the smartest horse in the world. We went out that gate and around the barn then back through the original lot and into the stallion pen. I kept her moving until she was sweating well and my blood pressure was slightly elevated but I was finally able to walk up to her and halter her. Then she wanted to dance around while I saddled her. We had a short sermon on this little issue and I was finally able to get her to stand still for saddling.
Since we were dressed for the dance I figured we might as well get down to business. I lead sweet old dependable Star over to the trailer and just as I suspected as soon as I put a foot on the trailer she backed away. Since she wanted to back away, I encouraged her to back up some more. I backed her a good twenty feet then pulled her back up to the trailer. Once again she backed away and got the opportunity to back another twenty, twenty five feet. Now would be a good time to say that Star doesn't like to back up especially when someone is shouting BACK, BACK at her. She got plenty of practice backing today before the light came on and she figured out I wanted her to stand still for me to get on. She finally stood and I put a leg over her then I sat down. She started circling like a buzzard circling day old road kill but we finally got lined out and I figured we needed to burn off some excess energy. Star definitely was not in the mood to stand still when I stopped her but after a little over a mile, some of that at a lope up a steep hill, she could see the advantage of standing still when I asked her to stop. We only put in about 5 mile or so but she was sweating really well and I was right. When we practiced mounting and dismounting she stood a lot better after our little session.
In Star's defense she is fresh, hasn't been ridden in a little over a month. She is running with my young stock and a very timid mare so she has the mistaken idea that she is a dominate horse and doesn't have to respect anything or anybody. I think she has started to reevaluate that position at least when she is tired. She will do fine this Saturday.
Monday - October 3, 2011
It has been a while since I blogged anything. Have all kinds of excuses but that is all they are, excuses. I have been spending some time with the horses when I water them but for the most part the round pen has stayed empty. Took care of that today though, I filled that sucker up. LOL I brought Star, Sweetie, Julie, and Snippy in this afternoon. I am going to take Star on a trail ride Saturday and I thought I would work on her ground manners. She has a few issues while being handled from the ground but does great once I am in the saddle. Basically I did a few yielding exercises to get her mind on me and then worked on her standing still for me to get on. We will keep working on this and even throw in mount from the trailer, a hay rack, and a mounting block. Might even work with throwing her in the grader ditch for mounting.
Sweetie has finally decided I am not some evil monster for taking her to that Amish trainer. I think she is thinking it WAS a stupid idea on my part and I would have a tendency to agree with her. She is coming up to me and waiting to be haltered. I think she enjoyed the grooming and brushing session. We worked on disengaging the hindquarters and moving the forequarters. We also worked on leading past. She was a little nervous when I slapped the saddle pad on her back but she settled down and didn't fight it.
Snippy is a problem child right now. She is very ear shy. So ear shy in fact that she doesn't like to have a hand touch her head or even get close to her head. She gets almost violent when you touch her ears. I am going to have to get this issue resolved before we can go on to something else. My normal method of dealing with this type of thing is to just rub the spot that bothers them until they relax and accept it. So far that isn't working for Snippy and her ears. Guess I will have to do a little research on see what else I can find to do to her. I like this filly but horses are too cheap to mess with a problem child.
I save Julie for last. I really like this Red Roan filly. She has an even temperament and just seems to want to please. I haltered her and combed and brushed her. We worked on disengaging the hindquarters and moving the forequarters. I have an appointment for Julie and hopefully Sweetie with Casey Warren in early December. Casey has started horses for me before and I really like the way he handles them. They come home ready to ride.
