Year End Wrap-Up

Well, a lot has happened since the last post almost 3 months ago. My siblings and I sold the family farm and settled our parents' estate. The barn and paddocks got built(!!!!!!!). And just after all that got wrapped up, it rained. We're in the middle of a drought that has gone on for several years now so the rain was needed and (sort of) welcome, but I mean, it RAINED. And rained and rained.  So we became a soggy mess around here and the arena was too wet to ride in without damaging the base. The good news is, all the grading and rock work that was done at the barn site paid off, and the horses were high and dry, for the first time ever.

So needless to say, Dublin got neglected the last few months. It seemed fine with him. My focus went from riding to working on his ground manners, particularly around having his feet trimmed. He and I have worked things out to where I can handle his feet with no problem, but it hasn't affected his manners when his feet are trimmed. Kicking, pulling away, biting, you name it. Julia suggested being just a little less polite with him when I handle his feet. When he arrived here (2 years ago!), he had some "issues" that probably came from his handling at the track, but after a long time of being handled nicely, his behavior around his hoof trims is now mostly just beligerant and dominant. So I went to a somewhat less gentle approach, handled him quite a bit more firmly, and put up with a lot less. In other words, I asked him to step up to the plate and let me do what I wished while handling his feet. He was a bit surprised and there was some resistance, but it paid off. He got his feet trimmed last week and was a perfect gentleman, even when a small abscess was discovered and had to be cleaned out.

My goal had been to be cantering him by the end of the year. A bad spill (from Cowboy, not Dublin) in February put a halt to riding for quite a while, and then, well, if you've read the posts, you know that the whole plan went to pieces. But so many things have been taken off my plate, and the weather finally cleared about a week ago and we've had sunshine, that I actually got to ride both horses a couple days ago. Dublin went right back on track like I had never been off him. And today when I rode, I asked for a canter and after a lot of fast trotting, we got a nice canter across the arena! I didn't think about it at the time, but since today is December 31, we accomplished our goal!

And by the way, here are a couple pics of our completed new barn!

Update

I've gotten in a few rides on Dublin and my new goal is one ride a week. Not very lofty, but it will be better than my recent track record! I did get to do a video on Sunday Sept 28th for my phone call the next day. Dublin Video 9/28/14.

We're working on some of the Parelli patterns, mostly Stick To The Rail. He does like to duck into the center of the arena! Getting him to stay on the rail without constant correction has been a challenge, but we are making progress and he is now responding quite nicely to leg pressure. Going sideways is also a challenge because he likes to go forward much better. We're using the fence to keep him from going forward, but the the challenge is to keep him from just turning away from the fence and going away from me. Keep those hindquarters moving sideways! What a great opportunity to improve my skills (she said, gnashing her teeth in frustration).

Parelli offers a great tool called a Horsenality/Humanlity match. If any of you corporate-types have ever gone through any kind of behavioral-style analysis such as Briggs-Meyers, you get the drift. Both you and your horse get your behavioral style analyzed and then placed in a quadrant depending on how left- or right-brained you are (left-brained is logical and analytical, right-brained more creative and emotional--translated to horse behavior, left-brained is thinking, right-brained is more reactive), and how introverted or extroverted you are. I've taken the test with Cowboy and now have take it with Dublin. Dublin wound up as a left-brained introvert, which is what I figured. I'm a right-brained introvert, but right on the cusp of left-brained introvert (my timidity and lack of assertiveness keep me in the right-brained quadrant, even though I'm logical and analytical to a fault). Cowboy, by the way, is a left-brained extrovert, in other words, a fun-loving kind of guy. My challenge with Cowboy is to keep up and make things interesting. With Dublin, it's more about showing him just why he should do it my way, or in fact, why he should do anything at all. With Cowboy, I need to mix things up and move faster. With Dublin, I need to move slower and not rush him. Hard for me to do, as I love getting fast results and with Cowboy, that approach works great! But I'm trying to slow down on some things while, at the same time, keep some impulsion going. It would really be better to do this more than once a week!

We got in a ride last Wednesday, Oct 1, and again yesterday. Yesterday, for the first time, I put a hackamore on him instead of a snaffle bit. A bit backwards--usually the hackamore comes first. But with an off-track race horse, even one like Dublin, I haven't been all that confident about controlling him in a hackamore. After a year and a half of him showing absolutely no inclination to bolt and run, though, he finally earned a ride in a hackamore. And it was a non-event. He rode like he'd been trained in it. Well, at first we lost a little of the power steering we've been working so hard to achieve, but he got the hang of that, and then it was business as usual. We side-passed over a couple barrels for the first time, and worked on our stopping. My plan is to get back into a canter soon. We got in one day of cantering before I came off Cowboy last February and all riding stopped for a bit. Then it was winter, and then life in general intervened. I can see some light at the end of the tunnel and am looking forward to life getting back to some new version of normal!

One thing that has been causing some disruption is my plan for a new barn to replace my ramshackle shelters. The barn should be going in at the end of October but there is some grading and concrete work to do first, and the old shelter and one paddock, both currently occupied by Dublin, need to come down for the grading work, so we aren't out of the woods yet, but I'm sure looking forward to being done with that project! AND to having a new barn! I'm sure the boys are looking forward to it as well, as they will have stalls in the same structure instead of separate isolated shelters. In line with that herd instinct.

Making progress!

Just got done working with Dublin. He is making such good progress in spite of the limited time we've spent together that we are now starting to work on some more refinement. That includes riding with one hand on the rein and using the stick to reinforce leg and weight cues, using the 9-step backup every time we stop, stepping up our Sideways game, and throwing some more challenges into moves like fore- and hindquarters yields.

I was able to sidestep him over a barrel from the ground, a move that stymied him completely last weekend. This time he did it like an old pro. His forequarter yields from a distance need a lot of work--he doesn't like to move his forequarters without also moving his hindquarters in opposition. Hindquarter yields are much easier for him. Planting his front end is not a problem! The hind end does not like to stay in one place as much.

Then I mounted him from the fence, a move that I had worried about for a long time but it has been a non-event. And so useful for when I start riding him with the bareback pad! He is sticking to the rail nicely now, and I'm able to move him back on track when he strays with just leg and weight pressure. He has a big trot, so one new task is to be able to control his speed. He did surprisingly well with that--his trot has been pretty much one speed--big and bouncy--but when I asked him to slow it down, he did so beautifully and we really got a lovely, easy-to-ride slow trot.

For going sideways, I've been using a lot of rein since I find it easier than using leg, and my new challenge is to set up the reins as a frame for sideways and then use the stick if leg pressure doesn't work. Dublin is not particularly fond of the stick. Being off the track, he is probably not used to the stick being his friend, and he tends to get defensive when it's used. So we had a bit of ears back and hollow back, but he is much less argumentative than he used to be and is finding that things go much better when he just tries to figure out what I'm asking when I use the stick. The stick is used with the intensity getting increased each time I use it, so if he responds to the first light tap, he is finding he can avoid a more stern cue. So finally, we got a nice sideways. Our sideways has mostly consisted of moving the front end, then moving the hind end, but today we actually moved both ends sideways in unison.

With that new slow trot, we were able to get a nice figure 8 around the barrels--at a fast trot on this long-legged boy, if you don't get your 8 set up correctly, you are across the arena immediately after it goes wrong. At a slow trot, it's a lot easier to get things set up for success and control the pattern.

All in all, a very successful day today!

Update

Dublin was videotaped today (Sunday) for my coaching call tomorrow. Our goal was to get more responsiveness to leg pressure, stick to the rail, do some sideways work, and work on a loose rein. We still have work to do but considering how inconsistently he's been worked, he's really making progress.

One issue we still are dealing with is his crankiness when being saddled. Once the saddle is on, he's fine, but he doesn't like having it swung up on his back. He expresses his dislike by trying to bite me, and since he has actually bitten me before--hard--I tend to respect that gesture and it doesn't make for a very graceful saddling. So not pleasant for him, and it just escalates the problem.

Laura used to have the same problem with her mare, who has a similar temperament, and she found that letting her eat while being saddled eliminated the problem. So we tied Dublin to the trailer with a hay bag and I swung the saddle up. It worked like a charm! Not only did he not try to bite me, he never even changed expression, just munched happily away. So yes, it's a bit of a bribe, but if he starts thinking of this as a non-event and even something that involves food, I'm willing to use it.

One Parelli exercise is to see if you can mount from the fence. I've been using a mounting block, but the last time I rode him, a few days ago, I decided to try mounting from the fence. The tricky part about this is to cue the horse to actually sidle up to the fence so you can slide on. The first time, I cued him to move closer with the riding stick, which both confused and offended him, and he did a little buck the first couple times I tried to move him closer to me. Then he swung completely away and I had to drive him back to the fence by driving his off side. That worked, and I was able to slide on him. Today, I just tapped his hip with the stick to move him to me, and he did it! No problems at all, and I was on and we were off.

He's been a bit dead to leg pressure all along, so Julia suggested using the "thunk thunk" technique--cue him with the leg, if he doesn't respond give him a light thunk with the riding stick. Wait 3 seconds and if no response, thunk again but double the intensity. And so on, until you get a response. I'm still figuring out what Dublin's reaction will be to having his buttons pushed as he tends to strike and kick, so this actually works well because the intensity of the thunks goes up predictably, so by the third thunk, when it is getting really annoying, he has had some time to think about whether he is going to get cranky, or yield, and so far he is yielding, and by now he is often yielding just to leg pressure. We are still a ways off from power steering on him, but at least I don't feel like I'm trying to guide a drunken sailor down the street!

He's breaking into a trot now upon request, and not after several rounds of the "thunk thunk" exercise. We can do a rather rough figure eight at the trot, and his stopping and backing are getting better. I can actually back him on occasion without using the reins, just shift my weight backward to draw him back and use my feet on his shoulders to drive him back. Sometimes I can skip the feet! His sideways is getting dramatically better, and I can open the gate from on top of him. It's not pretty and it's not fast, but we're getting the job done. He can also sidesteps over poles in a "U" configuration, which is on the video, and I got him to sidestep over a barrel later, although I did have to get off of him to accomplish that.

The video is on YouTube

Yesterday, I made time to ride both Cowboy and Dublin. Without getting the attention he needs, Dublin is not making much progress in some areas; mainly, he is still very defensive about his "personal space" and tries to bite if he feels he is being touched in a threatening manner--like being brushed, for example, or being saddled. This will work itself in time as he gets more good experiences, but of course he needs to get those good experiences! He is still fussy about his feet, although he has made enormous progress in that area. It is now actually possible to clean his feet without feeling like you are taking your life in your hands! My Parelli coach, Julia, suggested putting a rope around his foot to pick it up--that way, if he gets fractious, you can step back out of harm's way without putting his foot down and therefore rewarding the undesirable behavior. So I tried that and discovered, interestingly enough, that he seems to be familiar with this technique. All I need to do is drape a rope around his foot and all the fight goes out of him. His attitude changes to "OK, fine, I know there isn't anything I can do about this."

He worked great on the ground yesterday. I'm working on driving him and he is doing well. Steering can still be a little problematic! But he doesn't have a problem with me standing at his hindquarters and giving him directions. The biggest issue with Dublin is getting him to accept direction cheerfully as his first inclination is to question your authority and get offended by the fact that you have the AUDACITY to tell him what to do. So one of my goals is to figure out how to push those buttons a bit so we can trigger and work through those reactions, all without getting hurt! He likes to bite, strike and kick, so a 22-foot rope and a carrot stick with a string are great tools to give yourself some distance and still cue him.

He was very nice under saddle. Finally, he is responding reasonably well to leg pressure. One of the techniques Julia suggested is the Parelli "thunk thunk" method. Cue him with my leg, if he doesn't respond, use the carrot stick to "thunk" him lightly. If he doesn't respond to that in about 3 seconds, thunk him again but double the intensity. Keep that up until he responds. This is good one for Dublin because it is consistent, and it tends to trigger defensiveness but not to the point of being dangerous. And after about the fourth "thunk", he seems to debate whether it is worth getting into a fight (the head goes up, he slows down, and gets tense), or to just yield, and so far, he is deciding to yield. I think that because he can predict that the thunks are going to get more intense, and he has that little pause in between, he gets a chance to decide how to react without getting "reactive". And once he yields, the thunking stops so he is rewarded for making the right decision. It worked nicely yesterday! Of course, horses are full of surprises, so next time I may find that he has mulled this over and come up with a new coping strategy.

Yesterday we walked and trotted. Because his workouts have been wildly inconsistent, I'm not ready to push him into a canter yet (we cantered early in the year, right before I got hurt and sidelined for several months, but after that layoff we have been set back significantly). He does have the most beautiful floating canter, though, and I'm anxious to get working on that! He's probably ready but I need to work on both my physical and emotional fitness before going there. Not to mention working on riding the horse more consistently!

I have a phone conference in a week with Julia and should shoot some video for that call, so there should be something to watch within the week.

Another quick update

I had my coaching call with Julia today and we talked about Dublin leaving me at liberty. She suggested not putting pressure on him when he does that, just following him and letting him assume the leadership role. So tonight when I brought him off pasture, we went in the arena and tried it for a few minutes. Really works! I put him at liberty, he followed my lead for a bit and then took off. I've been trying to make that uncomfortable for him by putting pressure on him, but this time I just quietly followed him to the corner he picked and when he looked at me, I stopped. In a few moments, he left the corner to come to me! Then he followed me at liberty again, going from walk to trot to stop to back-up. He even matched me at the canter for a few steps, and then jumped the barrels (I trotted around the barrels. I ain't no long-legged Thoroughbred!). We quit on that high note. Fun!

Update

Hmmm...not doing so well on my resolution to post. Also not doing so well on my resolution to do something with the horse every day. Well, that's not true. Every day I feed and turn out the horse. I've had to make a conscious decision to focus on work and family the last month so no time left for horses.

This afternoon, though, I had planned on helping a friend with something, and that got canceled, so as long as I had the afternoon blocked off, I did go out and play with both horses on the ground. I'm hoping to get Dublin working well at Liberty, but today it didn't happen so much. Lots of departures on his part! So he went back on line. He's doing perfectly on line but tends to leave me at liberty. So back on line, and I'm working more on having him work with the belly of the rope on the ground, so our connection is more mental than physical, and then start weaning him off the rope.

About to jump? Nope! Went around.

Cowboy over a barrel

Cowboy's best side

The best part as far as they're concerned!

I brought my camera out with me, since it has also been getting neglected, so I can share a few pics of both my boys. Just for fun!

Dutifully posting..

I got to ride both of my boys today--first Cowboy, who has been dreadfully but blissfully neglected. He's a trooper and was my steady guy--I'd say as usual, but getting Cowboy to "steady" mode has been a project years in the making.

Then it was Dublin's turn. First he got worked online and did well. My assignment is to work on respect (getting him to respect me, I already have a pretty healthy respect for him!). To that end, getting a snappier back-up and sideways. So we worked on those with mixed results. He's a big horse with a "so what" attitude, so it takes a much bigger effort than I'm used to giving to make him stand up and pay attention, and then to give a bigger and snappier response. We did get a snappier backup, with a lot of lip-licking, so he is cogitating on that one. For sideways, I started him on a circle and headed him toward the rail, then asked him to sideways away from me while he still had some momentum. We have some challenges here. He moves his hind end away nicely but that front end gets stuck. So a bit of work to figure out the key to this one.

I am also to start him working at Liberty. We've already done some of this, and I really enjoy working horses at Liberty, so I turned him loose with just a rope line around the base of his neck and worked on Stick To Me and Circling. He did well, so I dropped the rope, and got a very very nice circling game from him at both walk and trot. He would occasionally head off to a corner but was easy to get back. I thought we had it at the canter but after 3/4 of a circle, he would veer off and away from me toward the other end of the arena. Pure sass!  After a bit of a joyful, thumb-nosing gallop around the arena, he would suddenly give me both ears and eyes and come trotting to me with a big spring in his step. Cowboy does the same thing, and I love to see a happy horse coming to me at a big bouncy trot! Then Dublin gives me big nuzzles as if to say "Hey! That was fun!"

Time to saddle up. He still has an attitude about being saddled, and I'm trying to make sure that there isn't anything uncomfortable about the saddle. I'm trying to ease it up there like a hug but I have to admit that when he snakes his head around with teeth bared as the saddle swings up, it does affect my delivery. On the plus side, he is so much better about accepting the bit. For the first few weeks, it was quite a game to see if he would take the bit, but now he takes it quite happily.

Things to work on while riding are making sure he responds to leg pressure, and that he can accept a correction with the stick without taking it personally. He's fine with a small correction, but if he ignores it and I phase up, I get a lot of ears back, head up, back hollow, and moving aggressively into the pressure. I'm not doing anything to hurt him, just being firm and letting him know I expect a response, so he needs to learn how to accept the correction and move away from the stick when asked. We'll get there--I'm still not certain about just exactly how belligerent he is willing to get and I want to make sure I stay safe while obtaining the level of respect I so richly deserve. So I'm inching toward applying more pressure and dealing with the response. I also tried to get him into a canter but wasn't successful. This horse can trot FAST and his a big stride, and it's a small arena. so by the time I've got him up to speed it's time to turn. Plus by then I'm worn out! I think I'm going to need to use the stick to pop him into a canter and I'd like to make sure first that he isn't going to launch me over it!

I forgot to include the link to his mock Level 2 Online audition with the last post so here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdLrnRuxUHE&list=UUfJydi1hTYF-TUN-5v10liQ&feature=share

Back In The Saddle--Again

Those injuries I received in the last post (3 months ago!) turned out to be more painful and slow to heal than I would have imagined, and I was out of the saddle for over 2 months. I'm happy to report that I can now ride again with only minor pain in the posterior. Between the injury, tax season, settling my mother's estate, and a much-needed rainy spell, Dublin and Cowboy have been lounging around not doing much. But most of those issues are in the past and it's time to get down to business.

I'm still in my Parelli coaching program with Julia Ryman Bell, and my assignment for the next month is to keep a log of my successes with Dublin, and this seems like the ideal platform for that! So you will be seeing more frequent posts going forward.

Some causes for celebration now that Dublin is back at work is that he did not back-slide very far during his time off. He is also getting much more responsive to leg pressure and a bit more respectful of my space. We still have some work to do there!

My assignment for the last month was to get Dublin to the point where we could film a Parelli Level 2 On-Line audition. Tasks we needed to capture on film were all 7 games (Friendly, Porcupine, Driving, Yo-Yo, Circling, Sideways, Squeeze), at a walk and trot, use 2 barrels for obstacles, do a Figure 8, trot-to-backup, and leg massage. We accomplished it all and got it on video! I could submit the video to Parelli and get him officially assessed, but I'm happy just knowing we did it.

For the month coming up, we need to work on a Level 2 Freestyle (riding) audition. We need to work on patterns (Cloverleaf, Follow-The-Rail, Question Box) and see if we can get him to do this in a relaxed fashion, on a loose rein, with a bare minimum of correction. When he relaxes and blows out, we should stop! That indicates he "gets it". Also we need to work on sideways, backing and indirect/direct rein. I need to do some brushing up! Sideways and backwards are tough for the Thoroughbred--he likes forward a lot!

We also will be starting Liberty work. We've already done some of that so we have a start. Cowboy loves Liberty, Dublin not so much. For a horse that can be sulky when given direction, he really doesn't like having no physical connection to his leader! This will be a real confidence-builder for him.

Also time to start back on trailer loading and riding. I did get a new truck a few weeks ago and it's just about past its break-in period, so we can start on that shortly.

More to follow as we progress!

Update

Boy it's tough to do blog posts in January and February when you work in accounting. Tax Season Panic is in full bloom. And the weather, which has been frighteningly beautiful (e.g.--no rain and therefore, no water), finally took a stormy turn and dumped some rainfall on us. We are grateful. Truly. But it did turn the arena into mush, so no more cantering so as to preserve the footing and the horse.

The weather finally cleared last weekend, and I did get to ride Dublin at a walk and trot. He was very good.
The arena is still not ready for cantering again, no matter how impatient I am to get back to it. So we walked and trotted and called it quits. I did do some groundwork at liberty with him--his first serious liberty session. It is so interesting to find out what happens when you introduce something new. At first, it seemed that Dublin was just blowing me off at liberty. What, no rope? I'm outta here! Lots of running around the arena, sliding into corners, changing direction, looking for an exit. Finally got him somewhat contained and working in circles. The trick seems to be to position yourself so that you are in control, both physically and mentally, of his hindquarters. Then you can direct him in one direction or another.  Interestingly, he found a lot of relief in this. What appeared to be blatant disregard of the human in the arena turned out to be complete panic at the idea of not being told what to do.  Once I was in a position to guide and direct him, he blew out, relaxed, and appeared completely grateful for being under the control of another being. Hmmm.....how interesting! The tough guy is really looking for a leader!

I got to process that for a bit, and then Laura and I got a chance to relax on horseback. For that, Cowboy gets brought into the picture, as he is my "steady Eddy" horse and I can hop on him bareback with a hackamore and slouch around the arena with a beer in my hand while Laura and I hash out the events of the day or the week.

Except last Sunday. Cowboy and Dexter have been having a few "words" on our last rides but we have been laughing them off and just keeping an eye on them. So we got on our ponies as usual, Ken brought us our beers and then headed over to give Dublin his carrot. We took our first sips and thanked our luck stars that our workday was done and we were on our faithful ponies. Except they weren't that faithful.  Apparently there were having a "conversation" that turned ugly, and Cowboy suddenly pinned his ears and lunged at Dexter. Dexter spun and took off to get away from him. Unfortunately, Laura was atop him, bareback with hackamore reins in one hand and a beer in the other. Not conducive to balance. And she came off dramatically. I watched in horror as Dexter headed over the top of her, and then Cowboy took off. I debated whether to save myself or save the beer, and while I was debating, gravity took over and I also hit the ground. Hard. Really hard. On my backside.

Ken was witnessing all this and was in the arena by this time, heading over to Laura about the time I bit the dust. Laura and I were both writhing in pain and unable to move. Apparently we hit the dirt in almost identical fashion, landing on our left hips and following up by smacking our backs and heads (helmeted, thank goodness!). The pain was like a thousand needles being jammed in, and I just had to lay there for a bit and take inventory of the injuries. I figured out that it was painful, but all body parts seemed to operational and nothing seemed to be broken, so I managed to get to my feet.

Laura also got to her feet with Ken's help, but she was not moving well. After 15 minutes to move about 50 feet, we parked her in a chair and called 911. She got an ambulance ride and an evening in ER but thankfully, no serious injuries.

So we are humbled and pretty much inactive at this point. Laura has finally given up the crutches. I just have an enormous (did I say Enormous?) bruise in a sensitive area and sitting, laying down, and riding in cars is challenging and painful. It's been 6 days and we appear to be on the mend. So today I took Cowboy (who has admittedly been getting neglected so that I can work with Dublin) to the arena and worked him at liberty for the first time in a long long time. And he was fabulous. He did everything as though we had rehearsed it yesterday. There's a reason I call him my "Easy Button". He loved having a job to do and was completely happy.

I worked Dublin again at liberty with pretty much the same results as before. He is an interesting case. He seems belligerent and indifferent when asked to work, but take away the leadership and he goes into a  panic. He is so relieved to find he has a leader! He finally figured out that, even though the rope had been released, I was still in charge if he wished for me to be so, and I got a good workout from him.

Back In The Saddle Again

It has been a rough couple of months. First, Dublin developed an abscess in his left front foot that seriously sidelined him for 6 weeks. We did make some progress on general groundwork skills as he needed his foot wrapped in diapers enclosed by duct tape and then booted. A tough challenge for a horse that doesn't like his feet handled! In the middle of that, very unexpectedly, my mother passed away on December 3, and life got turned upside down. None of this makes for good horsemanship. But Dublin has been released from foot abscess prison, and while life will never quite be the same, I am done with the urgent attorney visits, bank stuff, memorial services, etc that follow the death of a loved one, and it is time to get back on that big black horse. And so I did last weekend, and then again this week, and again today. He is such a champ and it is like we never stopped working. We've worked on yielding to leg pressure, straightness, and consistency with complete success. Hopefully the weather will cooperate (well, maybe not, we are in the middle of a serious drought and rain would be welcome!) and we can CANTER!!! Dublin has the most gorgeous canter out in the pasture. He just takes off from a standstill in a rocking-horse canter that you can tell is based from pure joy in being able to move his body. I so want to ride that! And it is so wonderful to see him moving that way after arriving here footsore and defensive. Now, if we could just get him to quit picking on Cowboy. He doesn't leave him along for a minute. Cowboy is amazingly patient, although it may be karma. Cowboy has always been the "brat-boy" here, full of mischief, and he probably recognizes that he is just getting it all paid back to him.

Once Dublin was released from confinement, he and Cowboy did mix it up a bit. Here's a bit of video showing some of their antics:

Dublin and Cowboy