Pushed a few more of Dublin's buttons today. Decided to trailer load early, before it got hot, but thought we would try putting shipping boots on him just to see what he would do. We figured he had worn boots before so given how uneventful everything has been so far, we weren't expecting much of a reaction. Wrong! The front boots were not much of an issue, but the back boots were not a bit hit. Lots of striking out with his hind feet trying to get rid of the darned boots. We let him settle down until his head dropped and he was blinking again, gently removed the boots and moved on to trailer loading. This time he hopped right in the trailer. He still has a tough time getting the hind legs in--don't know if he was used to a ramp before, but he does a weird little hop to get the back lets loaded. But he's calm about it and stands pretty happily in the trailer. He still wouldn't back out all the way without me going in with him and backing him out, but he made a very graceful exit stepping down out of the trailer going backwards (the horse was going backwards, not the trailer!). So he is already ahead of Cowboy, who makes a very dramatic hopping exit backing out of the trailer every time.

So trailer loading was again successful. Then I addressed the issue with the shipping boots. He got booted up again and taken to the arena, stepping like a Tennessee Walker the entire time. Quite dramatic and showy from the laid-back guy. But after he walked and trotted around wearing the boots a few times, he relaxed and decided they weren't going to hurt him.

I planned to work him on the wooden pedestal, thinking if he could get his hind legs on it, he might also be more comfortable stepping them up in the trailer. But he tends to slide his front feet off the pedestal rather than stepping off, leading him open to injuring his feet. So Laura offered up her new overreach boots to protect his feet. We put them on and back to square one--the horse does NOT like his feet confined in any way! So more groundwork with the boots on until he relaxed. The pedestal exercise was not entirely successful. He now steps up with his front feet like a champ but rarely makes contact with the hind feet, preferring to step completely over the pedestal. Not an option for the Quarter Horses, but the long-legged boy makes the step easily.

Then the longest ride I've had on him. Still just doing easy moves in the arena, working on power steering and brakes but given how little time I've spent with him, he is coming along nicely. He's getting faster about picking up a trot and I can trot him in patterns rather than just straight lines. Laura brought Lady in the arena and he got to be ridden with a little company. All went well.

Dublin Does Trailer Loading

We're hoping to get Dublin out on the trail before too long, ponied behind Cowboy, but first we need to be sure we can get him in and out of the trailer willingly. Of course he's been trailered before but we want to make sure he's happy about it. When I brought him home, I used my trailer, which is a 2-horse slant with a wide door, and it was easy for him to hope in and he could turn around and come out forwards. Laura's trailer is a larger 3-horse slant, but it has a tack room in the back, so the horse entry door is narrower as is the entrance to the trailer. We weren't too worried about getting him in but we want to make sure he can back out easily as he's a little big to get turned around in there.

We have introduced him to the trailer and gotten his front feet in. Today it's just too hot to do anything strenuous but this seemed like a low-level activity. He put his front feet in a few times and backed right back out. The more times we did this, the less interested he became in going all the way in, so we hung a hay bag at the front of the trailer. Voila! My big food-a-holic hopped right in!

We let him eat a bit and then tried backing him out. Dublin has gotten quite good at backing up--but that hay bag was sitting enticingly at the front of the trailer, so we had to remove that. He did a nice job backing up but he knew that step was at the back and wasn't very confident about it. I finally broke all trailer safety rules and got in with him to back him out, which worked beautifully. He didn't do the most graceful step down from the trailer I've ever seen, but he made it without getting overly anxious.

So that roadblock has been passed nicely! Tomorrow we'll put him in again and make sure he's OK with shipping boots, and then on Monday he'll go in with Cowboy and we'll do a little trip around the block. If all that goes well, as I suspect it will, then I think we're good to go with ponying him on an easy trail ride!

I've been short of time to work with him, and Cowboy has been getting even less attention, but it seems that Cowboy could use a little more work. Last night we were just hanging out on horseback in Laura's pasture when Cowboy decided it was time to go home. Right now. I was riding him with a halter, which I've been doing for the last 8 years, but he dug his nose into it and just took off for home. I finally got him stopped as we were headed at a good clip through the gate--after having ducked through both of the narrow and low barn doors.  Bad pony! Somebody needs a little more focused attention and leadership! He got that this morning in spite of the heat. And he will be wearing a bit when he ponies Dublin. The "crazy OTTB" is turning out to be the mellow one around--it's the nice seasoned 17-year-old Quarter Horse that is becoming the handful.

Got to play with my new camera lens last week. Here's a pic of Dublin proving that he may not have been a winner on the track but he does know how to run.

Dublin's New Adventures

Well, who knew that Dublin was going to turn out to be that horse we all want but rarely find--the horse anyone can ride, who takes everything in stride, who is nonchalant about (almost) everything!

All I heard when I started this adventure was that I was taking on a "crazy" Off Track ThoroughBred. Like "crazy" and "OTTB" were inseparable.

Dublin has turned out to be anything but crazy. Aside from the isolated turkey incident (and who wouldn't be scared of one of those things the first time they encountered one?), he has been nonplussed by everything. Well, he can still be a bit defensive of his personal space, but if you take things easy with him and prove that you are not out to harm him, he is a pussycat.

It took me almost six months to get on him because I was so worried that the "crazy" horse was going to show up, and when I finally got on, it was a non-event. It has continued to be a non-event. He is learning to respond to leg pressure, to trot on cue, and stopping is his absolute favorite thing to do! After all, there is a reason he was not a successful race horse!

Today, we upped the ante a bit and I asked him to put his front feet on a pedestal about a foot high. He wasn't crazy about it (I think he is still a bit puzzled by anything other than flat ground), but he finally put both feet up there. And the entire time, he simply tried to avoid the issue--no blowing up, no anxiety, just "no thank you, I'd rather not".

Having accomplished that, we moved on to the next challenge--spreading a large plastic tarp on the ground and asking him to walk over it. I held on to him as I dragged the tarp away from the fence. The wind was up a bit and the tarp flapped around. Dublin was wary and moved away, but was far from panicking. I finally got all four corners weighted down, holding on to the horse the entire time, and started circling him with the tarp squarely in his path. He did a couple dodges around it, and finally stopped and checked it out. In Parelli-speak, Nose, Neck, Maybe the Feet--and on the first try, he got his feet on the tarp. The first time he backed off and I let him continue the circle off the tarp. When he encountered it again, he barely hesitated and then walked confidently across it.

This horse just amazes me.

Next on the list was a ride, and he was a champ. We still need to work on getting him to accept the bit--he really dodges it. I'm pretty sure his teeth are OK so I think I need to focus on making this a more pleasurable experience for him. Once it's on, he's fine and has a nice quiet mouth. I can get on him slowly, and he stands quietly for me. We're working on his power steering but he improves with every ride. He is starting to show a penchant for the gate, so that's another thing to work on. No stopping by the gate, and no dismounting by the gate.

We went "Point-to-Point" heading from one plastic cone to the other. Dublin is a mouthy kind of guy, and at the first cone, he decided it would be fun to pick it up. Unfortunately, he also put one of his front feet on the lip at the base of the cone, effectively securing it to the ground, so he couldn't pick it up.  That had him pretty perplexed, as at each of the next cones, he nuzzled them and mouthed them, but seemed convinced that they were immovable objects. Finally he grabbed one and lifted it. Score!

After our ride, Laura's husband Ken kindly mowed all the tall grass on my property, which meant he needed to take the tractor through the horse field to get to the back of my property. I held on to Dublin as he drove the tractor through. Ken stopped to check in with me about any potential hazards lurking in the tall grass, and I led Dublin right up to the running tractor with the bucket and mower lifted and quivering. Dublin's biggest concern about this event was whether or not the hazard lights on the tractor were edible. I had to back him off to keep him from dismantling the tractor.

So the "crazy" Thoroughbred is not so crazy after all. In fact, he makes my Quarter Horse look downright neurotic. We still need to get him out on the trail but I'm confident that this will be a success as well!

Progress Report

Dublin got about 20 minutes of directed riding today. We worked on stick to the rail, point to point and some cloverleaf patterns. And a bit of "Stand Still" thrown in for good measure. He was nice and solid. If he gets upset, his head comes up and he starts to toss his head. My cue to make sure I'm sitting nice and deep in the saddle, my hands are down, and my shoulders are nowhere in the vicinity of my ears. We had neighbors emptying trash cans, blowing objects, and at one point a deer went bounding by. He stops and looks  and the head comes up, but that's pretty much the extent of it. Once he was moving comfortably and getting used to the idea of being sent off in different directions occasionally, we did a bit of trotting.

The saddle sits a bit low on his back and needs some shimming but it's not too bad. That will get fixed before we do anything fancy.

After his ride, we did a little trailer loading work. He got in my trailer but it's pretty open. We're planning on taking him to Pt Reyes in a couple weeks to try ponying him on the trail, and he'll be going in Laura's trailer. It's bigger than mine, but there is a tack room in the back that makes it seem more enclosed. He did okay--got his front feet in several times but he's not too sure about going all the way in. He actually got less confident as time went on. This may be like the saddling desensitization--the longer it takes, the more suspicious of the whole procedure he gets. We'll see how it goes. We want him nice and comfortable in there before we hit the road with him and two other horses.

Must ride Dublin tomorrow--he is getting just a little full of himself! He had an admiring visitor today and I had to back him out of her space. She gave him a cookie and after that he was all over her--way too much so. I did do quite a bit of groundwork with him later. I'm trying to refine his sideways moves and so we worked very particularly on getting him yielding to pressure.

Speaking of pressure--Laura has some concerns about Dexter's ability to do level 4 moves and I'm pretty sure Cowboy can't do them (flying lead changes for example). Our aging boys just don't have the moves any more. So we are both eyeing Dublin as our Level 4 prospect. We're both anxious to get on with it too. Wonder if there is any chance that we can bring Dublin along from green broke to Level 4 in 6 months or so...I suspect not but it's a goal. No pressure! Talk about the Dublin Project...

Marcie Lewis has been posting the pictures from our photo shoot and they are super. Check them out on Facebook.

Dublin:The Object of Affection

It is just blasted hot here today. I tried to beat the heat by starting to mow grass here pretty early in the day, but the heat still caught up with me before the mowing was done. Blessedly, the mower ran out of gas about the time I ran out of energy. As it sputtered to a halt, I noticed that there was a big buckskin mare in my driveway, accompanied by her mom Laura, who was taking her out for her physical therapy walk. I took a break while the mower cooled down to talk, and commented that it would probably be a good idea to get Dublin out for a walk too. He's been here 6 months now and has only been on my property and in Laura's pasture. We want to pony him out on the trail so it would be good to expose him to some new environments.

I haltered Dublin and brought him out to follow Lady on a walk around the neighborhood. Lady and Dublin have seen each other but haven't really interacted. We hadn't really given this much thought, but Lady was in heat, and apparently had never seen anything quite so stunning as the tall dark Thoroughbred that suddenly appeared in her space. She immediately fell head over heels in love with him and we found ourselves with a "situation".

Our plan had been for Lady to lead the way, as the wise older experienced neighborhood horse, to reassure Dublin that there was nothing scary on the walk. But Lady was so deeply enamored of Dublin that she couldn't lead the way. She could only behave in a most slutty manner, displaying what she considered her best attributes and stopping to pee every couple feet. Dublin, who was gelded about a year ago, is apparently completely over the love thing and was not impressed. He couldn't figure out why we kept stopping.

Finally, in the interest of progress, we put Dublin in the lead and Lady behind. This worked much better. Dublin was intrigued by all the new sights, sounds and smells and very happily strode down the lane. Lady also was striding quite happily, intrigued by the sight of the big dark Thoroughbred butt leading the way. And so we uneventfully made our way back to Laura's, put Lady in her paddock (nickering enticingly all the way), and got Dublin back in his pasture at my place.

You would think that would be the end of the story, but Lady has been bitten by the love-bug and is still mooning over Dublin. When Dublin came over for his afternoon grazing session in Laura's pasture, Lady perked up and cantered around her paddock making little cooing noises whenever she could spot him. She even abandoned her dinner to tear around because he was in sight.

Eventually Lady will come out of heat and things will return to normal. Thankfully, the attention has not gone to Dublin's head and he is still the same loveable goofball he always was.