Observation Deck Pictures

These are a little belated, but I have some photos from the trail ride in Henry Cowell Redwood State Park from a few weekends ago. At the top of the hill that we rode up is a clearing and an observation deck. There was a little automatic waterer for the horses as well as a place to tie them off while riders go up to look at the view. I went up and took some pictures. The view was amazing and you could see forever, but I wasn’t really able to capture that in the photos.

Woot!

I couldn’t get my camera to focus properly, but you get the idea.

The Flying Tortelli Brothers

Apache and I have been working on simple lead changes for a looong time now (over a year), both when I hack him alone and with my trainer. This week, we started working on flying lead changes. We had done one or two lessons a while back trying to get some out of him, but with little to no success, and then it just sort of fell off the radar due to other things we were working on. Now that Apache is more familiar with and confident at jumping, it’s a little easier to lay some poles down and get him to move up over the pole and actually jump over it, in order to ask for the lead change when his feet are off the air. On Tuesday, we asked for him to switch from his right lead to his left lead, which is his better one as we jumped a pole on the diagonal. He gave it to me twice, even if it was accompanied with a lot of big bucking, out of the four or five tries. We worked on it again tonight, this time going from his good lead to his bad one (left to right) and he did just as well. On the second try he gave it to me right over the pole when I asked after one big buck. The other three times, I had to circle him up and keep asking until he finally swapped, but he gave it to me easier each time. Considering it was the hard swap and that he’s pretty new to all of this, I was entirely thrilled that I got an immediate swap on one of the tries. I am excited to be working on flying changes finally and can’t wait to see the progress. My trainer says I can expect bucking for the first year or so, although it should become less violent.

Blazin’ Saddles

On October 27th, my friends, the Foxes, who board at my barn, were kind enough to haul Apache and I up to Felton for a trail ride. Our friend Libby has her Spotted Saddle Horse, Ice, in training there with Nicole Schoppe (of Hidden Gait Ranch) at the stables by the Felton Covered Bridge. The Foxes also have their Walking Horse, Gunner, in training there. We stopped by the barn for a little bit to visit with Ice and Gunner and some other clients of Nicole’s that I know (both equine and human). Mick and I then left and drove Apache and Twister, one of the Foxes’ other horses, over to Henry Cowell Redwood State Park. Nicole, Libby, and Linda hopped on their mounts and rode over to meet us there. We then went on a two and half hour trail ride through the forest on the hills. It was so amazing. The grades were pretty steep both up and down and Apache was so good. He rocked back and took all the descents nice and slow, being careful about where he stepped. On the uphills, we let them canter up a lot of the steeper parts where there were support beams built into the trails to help people up. Apache jumped them all! There was one part where there was a wide part of the trail that was uphill, but not super steep and the footing was nice and even with no roots, holes, or undergrowth. We let them gallop all the way up that section of the trail, about 1/4 mile, maybe more. Apache looooooved that part. It was quite a blast. I’m just glad we didn’t come around any corners to find hikers in the middle of the path. That would not have been pretty. I cannot wait until we go again. The Foxes go semi-regularly to check on Gunner’s progress, so it shouldn’t be too long!

Libby got a few pictures of Apache and Twister playing in the river and then Apache prancing back up the embankment. When we got to the top, he gave a big excited buck and my water bottle went flying out of my saddle bag. A friendly hiker was standing there and handed it back up to me.

Great Ride

This Sunday, I participated in the usual group jumping lesson that we do on weekends at my barn. For the most part, it went really well. Apache didn’t poop out on me like he often does after we’ve been out there a while. He was also really listening, taking the distances I asked for, coming back or lengthening his stride on cue, etc. There was one line our trainer had set up that was an easy 3 for the larger horses if they trotted in. For Apache and another horse, Penny, who are smaller and who move such that trotting fences is hard for them (in Apache’s case because his intermediate gaits don’t provide much spring), we were supposed to canter the line. However, at a canter, it was a snug three, so we really had to ask them to collect down the line. As we worked different exercises, our trainer added jumps each time through, building up to a full course. At some point, she asked us to start trying to get the line in 2 strides, which for our smaller horses would mean really pushing them up to get the length. Apache and I had tried it twice and both times, we ended up not getting the distance and having to put in a tight 3rd stride to get to the fence.

We were finally up for our last pass on the course before the group lesson was over and I was determined we were going to get it in 2. We had a longer line to complete first before we went around to that one though. According to my trainer, he was approaching the line too fast, but I didn’t realize it at the time. I felt we were just picking up our step. After the jump, he decided to really “run with it”. He threw his head up, yanking the reins down so they were loose, and took off galloping, in his goofy way where his legs are going all over the place and he’s taking precarious steps with each stride. The end of the line was actually just poles, but he decided to sail over those anyway. Since I was distracted with trying to slow him down and regain control and wasn’t really expecting him to jump the poles, certainly not to that degree, it took me by surprise. Thus, I didn’t really go over with him properly and I think I probably jammed him in the back when he landed. At that point, he decided he was going to buck, which wouldn’t have been a big deal. He always bucks when he gets excited or annoyed and he never bucks big. However, since he was running at the same time and not paying attention to where he was putting his feet, when he lowered his head to buck, he caught a toe and tripped hard instead.

All the sudden there was no horse underneath me and there was no way I could have stayed on. There was nothing there to stay on! I sort of rolled sideways down the front of his shoulder / chest and, as I was falling, I realized I was going to land in front of him and had time to think, “Crap, he’s running, I’m about to have a hoof in my face.” Fortunately, after the trip, he just stopped dead, probably because I fell off. He looked down to see if I was okay. I was, so I stood up and he looked me over to make sure. Then he spun around and took off running and bucking right through the group of other horses in the lesson who were standing waiting for me to finish the course. Then he stopped at a jump and my trainer grabbed him while I got back on. It was a really harmless fall. I didn’t have a mark on me and it didn’t hurt at all. However, I was really bummed since it broke my three year streak of not coming off my horse.

My trainer had us finish that line that had resulted in the mishap just to end on a good note and then we were done. I was pretty disappointed that I never got to get that shorter line in a 2. However, when I showed up for my lesson tonight, she said she thought we should do some jumping. She still had the same course set up, but had us work it a little differently. Part of the course was a small X on the diagonal. She had us basically do a figure 8 over that jump a few times, jumping up the line on a left lead, then swapping leads and coming back at it on a right lead. The turn to get to the jump from the rail on the right lead was pretty tight, which was interesting, because it meant you really had to ride that turn, making sure you kept some horse to ride, but still finishing a good corner to set up properly for the jump. It also meant that Apache didn’t have any time really to look at the jump but was basically coming out of a turn and there it was. He had to go over based on trusting me, not based on having had time to think about it himself. We actually did really well on that part of the exercise. He was jumping great tonight. Also, considering that we were doing jumping in my individual lesson, so he was not getting breaks while other people did the exercise like in the group lesson, he held his energy level amazingly well.

Finally, she decided we were going to add that small line again, but she told me that she had moved it out some for a larger horse, so it should be a really comfortable three, even without collecting him. We did that line a few times and the third time, he was carrying his stride and jumped in so well that it ended up being kind of tight. She adjusted the line to be a little longer to compensate and told me to ride it exactly the same to see if it rode better. Well that time, when I asked for the distance at the first jump, he added in another step instead. He jumped the second jump okay, but she asked us to do it again and to pop him with my crop and get after him if he didn’t give me the distance I asked for. She also said to move him up a little as I rode around the rail to the jump, to get a feel for what I had to ride. He was moving up for me nicely as I approached the jump. When I got there and asked for the distance, he did give it to me, but he kind of stalled out over the jump and ended up trotting out of the line.

At this point, my trainer said she wanted to see it one more time and to pop him with the crop and really squeeze as I asked for the distance and to move him up after we landed as well. Well, we came around that time and as we came up to the jump, I asked him to move up and he really started carrying a big step. I popped him with the crop in addition to giving him leg when we hit the distance and he sailed over the jump. I squeezed again when we landed and he got his huge stride right back as he hit the ground. The next thing I knew, we had only gone 2 strides and we were at the second jump. The distance was a bit long, but there was no room for a third stride, so I asked for it and he reached huge and sailed over it. It felt awesome! My trainer was so psyched. He wasn’t able to get this line in 2 when it was shorter and now that we had moved it out to be a really comfortable three even when carrying some step, he suddenly gets it in 2! What a rush! I am really loving jumping and so is he. I can’t wait until we get to jump at a show.

The Details

Okay, finally feeling up to posting the full story.

So we showed up Friday night, September 21st. I put Apache in his stall and gave him some hay. He was completely content and relaxed. He’s totally gotten used to this whole show thing by now and is mellow about it. I went back to my hotel and hardly slept at all, as usual the night before a show in a strange hotel room. I got up around 7 a.m. and headed over to the show grounds. It was drizzling and chilly, but nothing too bad. Amazingly, when I opened his stall, Apache had hardly a mark on him. There were a few small green spots that came right out with Cowboy Magic. The biggest pain of showing him is definitely keeping clean the 50% of his coat that is white. Usually he ends up with large green spots from laying down in poop when he sleeps or scratching himself with his mouth while eating hay. However, he stayed remarkably clean at this show, even with the rain and mud.

So once I got him clean and the first class was getting close, I tacked him up and took him to the warm up ring to see what I had to work with. Usually he starts super hyper at the beginning of a show and gets lazier with each class. By the end, I’m having to really push him around the arena. Well, with this show, he started out fairly lazy to begin with. I had to take a crop into every class and he made me work hard for every performance.

Our first class was the second class of the show, SSH English Trail Pleasure Open 2-Gait. It was an open class, meaning that it was open to trainers and amateurs. I was the only amateur in the class with two professional trainers. However, one of the trainers called for a gate hold and ended up taking 5 minutes to get in the ring. All the while, we’re going around and around and Apache is getting more and more annoyed. He knows how these things are supposed to go and that we aren’t sticking to the program. Thus, by the time the trainer showed up and the class finally started, he was pretty irritated. We went around at a slow gait for a bit and then the judge called for a show gait (i.e., second gear). Since Apache was annoyed, he decided to try and give me a canter instead. I asked him to speed up 3 times and each time, he popped his shoulder up and took half a canter step before I half halted him back down. He finally gave me the faster gait, but we’d already covered about a quarter of the arena fighting over it. The judge had to have noticed at least some of that. We ended up getting 2nd in that class. I really couldn’t complain given that he had messed up and I was showing against trainers. I do wonder if it would have made a difference if that hadn’t happened. We’ll never know!

The next class was the 9th class of the show, SSH Western/English Trail Pleasure Ladies Amateur 2-Gait. There were 4 women riding in that class. Apache again made me really push him the entire class, but he did stay consistent and never broke gait. We got 1st place in that class, and so began the streak that took me by surprise. Apache then got a 5 hour break while I went back to my hotel room and waited for the night time classes.

The last class of the first day was TWH English Trail Pleasure Open 3-Gait. I went into this class expecting nothing. I have never in my life seen a gaited judge place a spotted walker over a solid one in an under saddle class. There was only one SSH 3-Gait class offered at this show and I wanted to do more than one 3-Gait class and I also wanted a trial run for the SSH 3-Gait the next day. That’s why I went into this class. There were 4 of us, the other 3 were all solid TWH, and not surprisingly, we got 4th. That was it for day 1.

The next morning we were again in the second class of the day, a model class. The rain had stopped by day 2 and Apache was again pretty clean and easy to get ready for the model class. We went down when our class was called and to my dismay there were two big gorgeous black and white spotted horses down there. I knew we were in trouble. Apache was also doing his usual chomping furiously on his bit and consequently spewing slobber everywhere. Ugh. Never pretty when you are trying to show off your horse’s good looks. I got him to behave moderately well in the class. He never moved once I parked him out, which was awesome and a first, but he wouldn’t stop chomping for more than 3 seconds at a time. Despite that, to my amazement, when the results came in, we got 1st place! I was so thrilled. I can’t believe we beat out those black and whites. Perhaps the judge was looking for a smaller saddle type horse per the more recent direction of the breed registries. It’s always impossible to know what they are looking for.

After all of the model classes were over, which gave us about an hour break, we were in the first under saddle class of the day, SSH Western/English Country Pleasure 2-Gait. Now usually if you enter in Country Pleasure classes, you cannot enter into classes in any other division, which is why I have never entered any Country Pleasure classes before. I’ve often wondered if that would be a more appropriate division for Apache or if Trail Pleasure is indeed the correct place for him as I suspected. We went into the class and the same 2 gorgeous black and whites from the model class were in there, plus another pretty black and white. Another hard effort to get Apache around, but I did pull it off. We ended up getting 2nd in that class. I can’t be sure, but I think it was the judge’s way of letting me know that Trail Pleasure was the better division for us. It’s nice to know that I’ve been doing the right thing with him.

The next under saddle class was another hour or so later and the SSH Western/English Trail Pleasure Open 3-Gait. It was just me and one of the pretty black and whites in that class. Apache got both his leads, although he did trip just after we picked up the canter going to the right and I thought for a second that he grabbed the wrong lead afterwards. Fortunately, he hadn’t. He of course made me keep on him the entire time to stay in gait, but I was happy that he did and that he got his leads with no fuss. On the line up, the judge said, after we finished backing our horses, ‘Nice class ladies, nice ride.” I always appreciate when they make comments like that. We got another 1st in that class and it felt hard won given the judges comments.

Finally, several hours later, it was time for the championship class. I went in and it was one of the pretty black and whites and a two time winner of the championship in the past, Colors Dream Chaser. As we went around the ring, I literally felt like I was pushing Apache for every step and was squeezing the last little bit out of him that I was going to get. When the results came in, we got the championship! When I went to get the trophy, the judge told me again, ‘Nice ride.’ We got a championship ribbon, a small trophy to keep, and a perpetual trophy that we get to put our names on and stays in rotation annually. As I was trying to grab all of it from horseback, the ring steward said, “Where are your barn people?” I said, “Oh, I’m here alone!” He helped me by carrying everything out for me, so I could leave the arena for the next class to come in, and then grab it after I dismounted. As I was walking back to the barn, Jay Manos, a local trainer, came up to congratulate me and told me it was a nice ride, which I really appreciated. The show manager, Jen Hackney, also gave me a hug and told me congratulations on the great show I’d had. Everyone was very nice and supportive. I will definitely go back to that show next year. I was so proud of Apache and he got almost a full week off. Hopefully at our next show he’ll have a little more spark in his step!

So Tired…

Apache and I kicked ass at this horse show this weekend. I am too beat to go into details at the moment. I will blog all about it tomorrow. For those of you that can’t wait to get the high level results, I have attached a few pictures that should serve as a reasonable summary.

The Tolerant Horse

One thing I forgot to mention in my original polo post – those horses are so well trained! Imagine horses slamming into each other without so much as an ear flick, a batted eye, or a lifted hoof. They make no attempts to kick or bite at each other. For those of you not familiar with horses, they are fairly space conscious animals. The way one horse asserts its dominance over another is to be in charge of the available space. Part of horse training is to assert that you are in charge of the space and that the horse may not ever be in your space unless you initiate it. So for these horses to be so close together that your legs are pinned in between them – yes, that happened a few times – without being remotely bothered by it is pretty amazing.

Not only that, but think about all the times that they get clocked with a mallet or binged by the wooden ball that’s being batted around. I saw horses get hit with balls several times last night, one of which took it right in the face and didn’t even flinch. According to my friend Jess, it’s not all that uncommon for them to get hit in the face with a mallet on the upside of a swing – yikes!

In fact, last night, I took an awful swing on the left side of my horse. Keep in mind that the mallet is in the rider’s right hand, so I’m trying to swing across my body and the horse’s. I completely messed up the part where you’re supposed to swing the mallet parallel to the horse’s body – not so easy to do backhanded across both our bodies. So the end of the mallet, the part that looks like a hammer, went flying inbetween my horses back legs. Immediately I felt awful. Then, I felt the head of the mallet hook on the horse’s right hock, so I’m leaning to the left with my mallet underneath the horse and now it has hooked on the back of his right leg and he’s still going forward. Perhaps my immediate though should have been that I might get pulled under the horse with that physics going on, especially since I was already leaning over holding a heavy object across my body in the same direction. I guess I knew I could just let go of the mallet. Instead, my guilt immediately turned to panic. I was envisioning the mallet twisting up between his legs, causing more tension as it remained hooked on his right leg and he brought his left leg forward, and him either falling down in a tangle or breaking a leg. I started to let go of the mallet to avoid that scenario when I felt it spring free of his leg and swing back to his side. Whew!!! Later Jess told me that the mallets are designed to break for exactly that reason, so the most likely thing would have been for it to break before he fell or broke a bone. Not knowing that at the time, it was fairly stressful! The most impressive part of it though, was that my horse didn’t care at all. He wasn’t annoyed and he didn’t hold a grudge. I suppose that kind of thing has probably happened to him a lot. Regardless, the level of patience and training those horses have is awesome.

One more note – I think it’s fascinating that some of the horses actually play polo. Meaning, even if the rider doesn’t quite know what they are doing, the horses will chase the ball and push other horses off of it. It all depends on the individual horse, but Jess told me, for example, that her horse is a more aggressive polo player than she is. If there is a moment of indecisiveness, sometimes, the horses will just decide for themselves and run down the ball or another horse. I think it’s a really interesting insight into animal psychology that they participate in a game to that degree. Whether their motivation is some kind of distortion of natural competition or something more like having fun is a question that probably can’t be answered, but it’s still pretty cool.

Polo!

A friend of mine, Jess, has been playing polo for a while now and has been trying to talk me into it. I finally gave it a go this evening. First, Jess had me go into the ‘hitting cage’, which is a one room building with a wooden horse in the middle of the floor. You sit on the horse, which is fully tacked, and practice hitting the ball without falling off. It allows you to figure out the mechanics of standing up in the stirrups and leaning to one side while swinging your mallet at the ball with one hand and keeping ahold of the reins with the other. It’s actually not that hard to figure out how to juggle all of that, if you already know how to ride and have decent balance and leg strength. The hard part is actually making contact with the ball and when you do, getting the swing right so that you get good distance and accuracy, and all without hitting your horse.

The way the practice clinic runs, each person gets to go in every other chukkah. A chukkah is a 7-minute round of play. In a real game, the same 8 players would play 6 chukkas, but at the clinic, we don’t keep score or play actual games. I got to go in for 2 chukkahs. As I was mounting the first horse, I realized that they use double reins, which I have never used before. The wooden horse in the hitting cage had only had a single rein bridle on it. So, add that to the list of things to juggle! Then, as I’m walking him to the arena, it occurs to me that these are trotting horses! Ugh! That first horse I rode was super lazy and all he wanted to do was trot! Despite the fact that I’ve only ever tried posting once in my life for a few minutes, I winged it. His trot actually wasn’t that bad and sitting it was fine, but I posted it here and there anyway, as I felt it helped me keep in better sync with his movement, which is important, when your turning wildly back and forth and running after the ball. About halfway through the chukkah, the horse realized that I wasn’t going to let him get away with just trotting and wasn’t going to relent on kicking until he cantered. After that, he cantered around pretty easily for me. It was much more exciting to play when your horse actually runs with the group and the ball. I had about 4 or 5 chances to make a shot on the ball that chukkah and I missed every time but one. I made a good hit that one time though, and it a backwards shot and on the left side, which is the hard side, since you hold the mallet in your right hand.

The second chukkah that I rode in, I got another horse who just wanted to trot. However, this horse had a huge trot and it was launching me out of the saddle. Having ridden a gaited horse for the past 8 years, I was totally unprepared to sit a trot that big. I couldn’t keep my balance well enough to actually try and swing at anything, but people were barking at me to make attempts anyway. Ack! When I tried to kick the horse up into a canter, he would just trot faster and faster, making it even worse, such that I’d have to slow him back down to a walk to get my balance back. I posted his trot when I could, but being unexperienced at it, it was hard to keep on rhythm when he’d speed it up in my attempts to make him canter. Again, about halfway through the chukkah, he realized that I wasn’t going to stop kicking until he cantered and he gave in. Like the previous horse, he cantered for me without trouble after that. In fact, this horse was pretty happy to give chase from then on, kicking up into a lively canter whenever asked. I didn’t get any good hits that chukkah. I didn’t get too many shots to hit the ball, and when I did, I made contact as much as I missed, but never got any great hits. Overall, it was really fun, and I’d love to do it regularly, but the cost is $400 per month. I definitely feel like I’ve been bitten by the polo bug, but I just don’t know if I can afford that.

Jump For It

Apache and I had a jumping lesson this weekend. It was hardly his best performance. We didn’t start recording it right away because he kept bucking and not really wanting to listen to the half halts. At one point, I half halted and he came to a dead stop and was tossing his head in the air. We eventually got him listening a bit better and Erin started recording. He still wasn’t doing his best. For much of the time, he was doing more of half canter, half stepping pace, rather than carrying a true canter step. He bucked once more after we started recording and ran off from the jump up the diagonal as well. Regardless, we still had fun and learned a lot, as always. You can watch the video here.