horseweblog.com – Page 11 – A web log of Horses and Horse Activities

2011-07-10

Sunday, June 10 2011

Mara spent the weekend with us. She rode Laddie this morning.

Smiles all the way around, you just can't see Laddie's — Mara and Laddie with a good helper, Grandmother Mimi

Mara likes dogs, cats and horses. She will walk around the barn hallway and go to each stall, look at each horse hanging their head over the stall door and say “Hi” and sometimes wave. She sincerely tries to communicate with each animal and I am certain they understand her. A few weekends ago Mara rode without an adult holding her on. I just set her on Laddie and took my hands away. Then I had Laddie step forward. She adapted to his movement and that was that. I did not know how I was going to get her to make that step, but it just happened. I just kept on leading Laddie all the way from the barn to the house and Mara never had any problem.

She has a little black Sears and Robuck western saddle just like I had as a kid. I told her to hold on to the horn. Then I told her that she would not hear me say that very often. I just want her to ride the horse and be comfortable. We have to get her a helmet. Today we rode in the round pen. My plan is to get her used to riding by herself (w/o holding adult) which I think we can consider accomplished. The only problem I noticed today is that if her seat slips to one side (always to the right) she adapts her body to the offset rather than scoot her seat back to the center. My inclination is that she needs to learn to scoot her seat back to the center and keep it that way.

Or does she need stirrups to accomplish this? She seems to have good riding posture in the saddle. When she rode bareback yesterday, her inclination was to squeeze with her knees which caused her legs to bend and her knees to move up towards the withers. Today in the saddle, her legs are under her. My next step is to have the pony move in a circle on the lunge line. I can control the move forward and stop so Mara can work on her seat. The next step is to have Mara start controlling the go and stop. Once she learns that, we can ride the Buffalo River Trails… I would appreciate suggestions. Are there any books on “How to teach a child to ride a horse”?

2011-07-09

Saturday, July 9 2011

I rode Magic today. It was very hot. We rode the arena exercises and up on Shirey. The limitations we have in the arena are mostly mine not Magic’s. We are having good rides just not great progress. Magic is a joy to ride on the trail. He seems to trust me, does not spook and hopefully enjoys the ride. On this ride and the last one, he has tripped or stumbled on his front feet. It is not something that I have ever noticed before. Maybe his feet are too long. I need to check how long since the last shoeing. Four and a half weeks since June 7 shoeing so that should not be it. It is hot and that makes a horse less active. I just do not know.

2011-07-05

Tuesday, July 5 2011

Rode Magic today. He did good in the arena, making improvements every day. Our limitation now is I can only get the left lead for the canter. Rode in the pony pasture, around the Oak pasture and up on Shirey Mountain. Every once in a while he might see something that makes him look twice. He does not have a knee jerk reaction. He does focus his eyes and head on the thing but it is not a start or jolt. It is actually smooth in comparison to other horses “alerting”. I enjoyed the ride.

It has been Newt’s turn to ride for the past few days but I have put it off. It is very hot but there is something else. I am exhilaration after a good ride and that has not happened with Newt lately. I am not making the progress I want with Newt. It is my limitation not Newt’s. I do not know what else to try that will not be too much for the limited attention I get from Newt. My feeling is that if we are not making progress, it can get boring and we might end up going in the wrong direction. So I am not going to ride Newt for a while. Sometimes it is best to do nothing and be thought a fool than to jump in and remove all doubt.

2011-07-01

Friday, July 1 2011

I rode Magic today. The first thing we did was go out and look at the cows. We tried to bunch 4 together and move them. We had a fence holding one side but the cows did not bunch. They would just move off in 4 different directions. We did not make a good drive but Magic is interested. Then we rode to the arena and did the exercises. Magic’s bending is improving little by little. Maybe it is just not getting worse. We cantered but only on the left lead. The flies were bothersome today. We rode around the Oak pasture and up on Shirey Mountain. Magic is very good on the trails.

2011-06-30

Thursday, June 30 2011

I rode Newt this morning. I changed the crossbar to a 24 inch jump. Newt would stop sometimes and then jump or walk over it. It did not flow from ground poles trotting to inducing him to jump. But he did not balk so maybe we can work into it. I thought I noticed slight improvement in the exercises today. He was not lazy like a few days ago. We even cantered in both directions with both leads. It did involve some baby bucking and we did not canter very far. We rode the three exercises. He still seems to have some reluctance to bend to the left. After working in the arena we rode up the east end of the Oak pasture. This was new for Newt and he noticed it. He must work into accepting new things very slowly. We rode to the top and turned around and went back to the barn. It was a good ride.

2011-06-29

Wednesday, June 29 2011

Rode Magic today. His tracking on the right rein is improved. That is, he is bending more in the right direction though the problem still exists. My treatment when I feel the problem is to immediately ride a small circle in the direction he should be bending. I notice it most on the long leg of the oval exercise. We rode the needlepoint, oval and circle exercises. We trotted the canter set-up poles but the cross poles must not be challenging because Magic and Newt both just trot the whole thing. I pushed him into a canter. He took the left lead as he always does. We cantered two rounds of the arena and two rounds of the circle. At first I just had to push him faster and faster until he cantered. His response to the cue to canter is improving. We rode up to the top of Shirey Mountain, half around the top and down the middle. Magic is very calm on the trail. He does not look for spooks. In fact, he ignores some that I notice. I mowed the trails on Shirey a few days ago. The deer flies are a bother now. I think Magic is ready for his first trail ride on the Buffalo.

2011-06-27

Monday, June 27 2011

I walked Newt to the arena. Moses, York and Topsie were trying to find some animal in the rock pile about 30 feet from the arena. Newt was concerned about what they were doing and we had to restrict our exercises to avoid that area. Then, as we were working at the other end of the arena, Moses sensed that I was a little worried and came down there to be with me. Actually, he was standing in the way of what we were doing. My horses are used to a lot of dogs but the fact is they always show at least an awareness to as much as a displeasure when the dogs are in the way. I love those dogs but I need to put them up when I am working a horse. So we had a limited workout. Newt’s lack of bend is on the left rein. Just the opposite from Magic. Newt had a little of the resistance and a little of the lazy, which I think is a form of resistance with Newt, but there are times when I am riding him that it feels good. We’ll just keep on working and moving in the right direction. We rode down the middle of the pasture to the west end and back on the trail. I walked him back to the barn.

2011-06-26

Sunday, June 26 2011

Rode Magic to and from the arena, we did all the exercises and rode around the Oak pasture. Magic is a very trustworthy horse. It is a rare occasion when he spooks. He did good at the exercises. I have noticed a tendency not to bend when we are on the right rein on the oval exercise. He does seem to be able to bend (to the right) when we do a tight circle. So it is not that he cannot bend to the right. It is just that he bends the wrong way when we are on a large track on the right rein. We trotted the poles and Magic, just like Newt, did the whole thing at a trot. He did not take up the canter as expected when we went over the cross rails. We only did it once. When we have finished our normal work on the circle, I try to get Magic to do the circle with completely slack reins, i.e., bridleless, on the buckle. It works a little but I have to give aids with the reins occasionally. We rode the trail around the Oak pasture with about 200 yards at the trot. It was a very nice ride.

2011-06-25

Saturday, June25 2011

Rode Newt today. I led him to the arena. I put a cross rail for the 4 rail in our setup. Newt could trot it with out jumping the cross rail. He was lethargic which is unusual for him. We were very successful at stopping and standing still today. He was not eager to move though. I do not think anything is wrong with him. I saw him running very fast in the pasture yesterday afternoon. We did our exercises with me pushing all the time. Even though he was lazy I did not get the feeling that he was calm and trusting. We rode under the dam and to the west end of the pasture and back. I walked him back to the barn.

2011-06-22

Wednesday, June 22 2011

Rode Magic out to the arena and rode the exercises. We are making little improvements. When we ride the oval exercise on the right rein, he seems to bend the wrong way. He seems to be looking to the left. I rode the three poles two strides another pole. Magic did good but I was not in tune with such a big trot. I may shorten the stirrups a notch. We rode the trail around the Oak pasture and across the dam into the Ash pasture. We tried to push the cows from the Ash trees to the barn gate. They would just split up and we could not keep them together. I need to catch them on the fence so we just have to cover 180 degrees not the full 360. I think he is interested in cows. It was a good ride.