Snowy Ride Today

I rode for 28 minutes today on Arabee, just around the barn. It'd snowed overnight, probably about 6 inches (give or take).

Walked mostly. She was feeling frisky with the snow and wind, it was 27 degrees actual...don't want to know wind chill!

Very happy with the way she responded to the Little Joe riding halter. The wind had Arabee feeling frisky, but she responded very well to my rein aids, when needed, and yes, they were needed. The little trotting we did to was fun and animated, she had to pick up her feet a lot because of the snow.

Matt got some pictures through the dining room window - you can see the screen in there.

I tried the browband, crown/cheekpiece and s-hack on Arabee, but the way I had it set up it was right in her eye. So I took it back to the house later and adjusted it, but I ran out of daylight to try it on her again. Maybe tomorrow.

Tuesday and Wednesday

Well, some of the stuff I'd ordered arrived on Monday in the mail. It's always nice when the mail is too big to fit in the box, because then our mail deliverer brings it to our door - she seems very nice!

Anyway, it was a little square box from Running Bear that contained my s-hack, an adjustable girth loop, and two of their Smart bridle parts: the browband that has a snap and a place to run a crown/cheekpiece through, and what was supposed to be the crown/cheekpiece - all in DAY GLO BLUE! It's pretty :-) Well - the right part didn't come - so I still have to wait to try the s-hack out because instead of the part that would actually hang the hackamore, it was just a crown piece. I expect it to come any day now. I'd had a gift certificate from there, so I wanted to get my stuff there - I had an awful time trying to order through the site, apparantly they'd just done some revamping and hadn't quite worked out all the bugs. I think I encountered every problem there was - it should be good to go for everyone else, now!

I've ridden twice now (sunday and tuesday) in the riding halter I bought from Little Joe - and it's working beautifully. I almost wish I hadn't bought the s-hack. But, I think it will be good to have another option, in case I end up having issues with rub marks, maybe I can alternate days riding in the halter and s-hack. It'll be interesting to see which she goes better in when in a high energy situation. For Arabee, a bit isn't it. (or maybe it's just my hands...who knows, either way she just gets more tense with rein pressure holding her back in a bit)

Anyway, the point is I rode Arabee on Tuesday. I put the girth loop on her girth and adjusted the breastcollar to fit with it on. I wish I'd have just bought a girth with a D-ring, but this is certainly better than having to put the breastcollar loop around the girth. I'm glad to be riding in the breastcollar again, because I don't have to girth up near as tight, and I have much greater stability side to side in the saddle - Arabee just doesn't have the withers to hold the saddle in place.

I started the stop watch function on my watch when I mounted up to make for sure I got a minimum of 20 minutes in. We walked between the barn and corn crib on a loose rein, then I put the reins in one hand and flapped the rump rug with the other. I had to do this a lot longer than I expected - she was jumpy. Did this both ways/sides. Then we ventured out towards the road, then back past the tool shed almost to the house. Then we did a little trotting, more walking, and eventually I took her out to the road, then back, then we went back out onto the road at a trot, and went about 50 feet, then turned around and walked back. All in all we rode for about 23 minutes. Pretty good ride, she was doing a little bit of stupid shying at things like clods of mud in the gravel driveway, but she soon got over doing that with a quick boot reminder.

Then on Wednesday, I haltered her, picked her feet, and we walked/jogged up the road almost to the red barn. We went to the telephone pole past the hill. (I realize NO ONE knows where that is or how far but me, but it'll help me remember what we did when I look back) I pushed pretty hard and was pretty out of breath. I've discovered these protein/energy bars that when you eat one before and after exercise, they amazingly prevent lactic acid from building up and help your body draw energy straight from fat, so your muscles really aren't sore! Now, my joints sure were/are stiff but I attribute that to my body still getting back to normal from pregnancy (it's amazing, God designed the pregnant body's ligaments to loosen up in preparation for delivering the baby...and gradually after the birth things tighten back up)

We're supposed to get a pretty significant snow system come through tomorrow, but I hope to make it over to the arena at least once this weekend.

I've been having so much fun getting back into shape, and it's fun to have a workout partner (even if she is hairy, muddy, and smells like a horse!)

February Goal Review

So I think I'm going to try to do a monthly 'goal review' on or around the first day of each month. First I'll go over how I did on the previous month's goals, and then talk about what I plan to accomplish for the next month.

Back in October, I posted what I'd hoped for 2010 and a rough outline for what each month might bring.

First of all, things got pushed back a good bit, since our son waited until November 10th for his birthday, rather than coming in October like his due date was. (He was well worth the wait...but still!)

So while I did a little bit of horse work in December, it was not to the extent I had hoped. I rode a little, walked on the road a little (bit by bit increasing distance). I didn't at all do anything about any kind of trail network to ride around home, other than the road handwalking. Any riding I do from home will end up with at least a little bit of road riding, and that surely has helped.

In January we did more of the same of what we did in December, but added one arena session to it. I'd hoped to have found time to do more than just the one that we did, but it turned out that things got busier than expected. I still have some riding basics that I want to run a refresher course on - steering, rating on a loose rein - and I intend to do that in the arena. I've done a good job of improving rider fitness. I wanted to do that gradually but consistently, and I feel the handwalking and jogging has worked to accomplish a marked improvement.

So we've done okay on the December and January goals, especially considering my actual horse work in December didn't even really get started until the later part of the month.

Now, for February.

>Commit to riding 2-3 times/week.
>Ride in the arena at least 4 times this month, working on fine-tuning loose rein riding
>Gradually increase comfort level with vehicles to the point where I can ride to and from Arena, rather than handwalking both ways.
>Begin short training rides from home (mounting up in the barn lot, and venturing out, going a little farther each time).
>Build up to being able to ride for at least 1 hour walk trot canter.

Got to Ride Last Night

So I got to ride last night, and it was GREAT!

I mean, it was really cold, but the skinny little balaclava I bought to go under the helmet worked great on my neck and ears, and the amazing winter riding pants I got for Christmas (but were too small and had to exchange so really...Christmas in January!) were soo comfy and warm and easy to mount and ride in, too. And amazingly, I stayed warm even just walking.

We just rode around the barn lot - I didn't have too much daylight left. I probably rode about 15 minutes, but not too sure since I didn't have my phone or watch with me. Arabee did very well with just leg pressure turning. I was focusing on asking her to lower her head each time I jiggled the rein (a lower head can mean a calmer horse, and it's hard for a horse to really do anything fast with their head low) I want her to get to the point where she lowers her head anytime I touch the reins, even if she's focused on something scary.

Even though I had significant drape in the reins, and often was holding my hands down on the pommel (to force myself not to direct rein!) I'd look and cue with leg and she'd follow the imaginary path I requested very nicely (mostly.).

We did a little trotting. It was fun. I hope this week lets me get outside more than I did last week.

Friday and Saturday my family was out of town for a conference and stayed in a hotel - and did a lot of EATING not-home-cooked meals. I made a point though of going to the hotel's fitness center, and I walked/power walked/jogged for 40 minutes Saturday, and walked and jogged a little over 20 minutes on Sunday morning. It was great to get that exercise, and surely it will help me towards being fit enough to ride better. Can't hurt, anyway.

Not just sitting around, exactly

So I realized the last post I did was last week. But I've been working with Arabee still, just not blogging it, which is too bad since now I'm not sure I remember exactly what we did!

On Saturday the 16th since we'd been down the the arena the night before, I just went out and picked hooves, and then soaked her hind feet in the easy soakers and borax water. I trimmed her frogs (pretty shaggy looking with the time off and then starting back up with road walking) and started scratches treatment. She had them pretty badly on her hind legs especially, just a few spots on her front legs. I sprayed with a mixture of 1/2 teaspoon tea tree oil and 1 cup water until I got each spot good and soaked. I ended up with about 1/3 cup leftover in the spray bottle. (I also cleaned up the sole of her left hind foot with the hoof knife - see below)

Okay.

Tuesday the 20th the AERC paperwork came in the mail. I've read through both December and January's Endurance News, and called the office to let them know Arabee's name was spelled wrong (short one 'e'). They're sending me a new horse letter.

ummm...

Matt was really busy last week at work, had to work late so neither one of us got outside while it was still daylight after Tuesday.

Saturday afternoon Arabee and I took another walk/jog North on the road. This time I pushed harder, jogging 15 steps by each pole. Not surprisingly, Arabee had already caught onto the pattern, and would offer to trot by herself right near the pole, so I started to switch it up a bit. That mare is so smart!

Apparently back last summer when I noticed she was LAME on the right front, left rear, she had abscessed on both feet. The lameness on the left rear was not noticable at the time we took her to the vet so I was surprised a week or so ago when there was a hole just like the abscessed right front had. I'm surprised she didn't appear lame in that foot longer than she did - the "hole" went all the way around her foot from heel to heel and was 1/4-1/2" wide all the way just inside the white line. It was just barely starting to show gaps from wearing on the road, and the whole channel it created was starting to pack rocks and mud and manure, so I trimmed away the flap so it would stay open and not trap all that stuff on Saturday the 16th.

okay - so I know this is really disjointed..but I'm just typing as I remember how it happened!

Sunday we thought we had plans for the afternoon, but that changed so I was able to treat Arabee's scratches again. I'd hoped to get to ride down at the arena, but it was off and on sprinkling/pouring, and I was not interested in walking down there in that weather! I'll wait 'til I can RIDE some actual trails to push training in the rain!

Anyway, I used a bit of a different approach that I read about for scratches treatment, and I'm waiting until I see it's effectiveness to post about it. I'm pretty excited about it though. Same for the new riding halter I bought. It came Saturday the 16th and while I love the way she responds in-hand while wearing it, I haven't had a good opportunity to RIDE in it yet...so I'm waiting to post pictures and where I purchased it. I am fairly certain I will really like it, though. It's very pretty, anyway!

This week is looking like I will very rarely get any opportunity to get out and ride. Not tonight...nor Wednesday or Thursday. Realistically, not again until Sunday afternoon!! Maybe February will be mild, so I can get some good training in then?

Monday, January 19

Got outside again with Arabee yesterday. Haltered her and just started walking North from our driveway. At every telephone/electric pole we jogged for 10 strides. Then we walked again until the next pole, and jogged 10 strides. Next time I'll go for 15 jogging strides between poles.

We met a lot of vehicle traffic on the way out, just one vehicle on the way back in.

Stopped at the mailbox and remembered it was a holiday - too bad because I am waiting to get my AERC membership stuff back. I had received 2010 membership as a gift, and since I didn't call in until January, they told me they'd send December and January Endurance News too. Can't wait.

Friday, January 15

Was dressed and ready to ride and out the door at 4:30pm, caught Arabee, saddled up, and started walking towards the arena at 4:43. Met more traffic than usual, since it's a Friday night. Once we were within view of the several horses in the pasture, Arabee started wearing her tail up over her back, and once they all galloped towards the fence and were trotting back and forth as we progressed towards the driveway of the barn, she made me glad I was already wearing my helmet more than once.

Got there, and realized I had to go inside to open the overhead door to get Arabee inside. So I tied her, and as I was almost to the door the girl who was feeding the other horses came out and told me she'd turned the lights on since she knew I was coming, which was nice since it takes a little bit for them to come on. Very nice of her!

Brought Arabee in, and when I pushed the button to shut the door again, she nearly came out of her skin! Looks like I'll have to practice garage doors at home! She calmed down once it was low enough for her to see it, and I walked her both ways around the arena. I took off my vest and hat, walked to the middle of the arena, and had grabbed mane and put my foot in the stirrup when she suddenly pricked her ears and whinnied. Not ready to go, yet, I guess! So I unclipped the reins and sent her trotting and cantering a couple of times both ways at "liberty." She got winded pretty quickly (she's nearly as out-of-shape as I am!) and was asking to come in pretty quickly.

So I got on and rode for a few minutes. Just walking. It was so hard for me to not give her any turning direction with the reins!! The more leg I used, the more she wanted to speed up, so I automatically would go to give her a direct rein to get her to turn so she wouldn't speed up to my leg. I finaly had to push my hands down against the saddle to keep myself from using them! Really, the riding only lasted for 7 minutes and was really not the highlight of the evening, since it took so long to walk past the pasture, and finally get her brain back to where it was safe to get on. I really shouldn't have ridden that long even, because it was plenty dark by the time we got home.

I think we both will be sore tomorrow!

Rode Again Yesterday

I got to ride Arabee yesterday - the temperatures were abnormally high - got into the 50's! Nothing special, just saddled up (no breastcollar or crupper) and rode in the dr. cooks for 10 minutes. All walking, except just at the end we did about 100 ft. of trotting - would've been 75 if she'd have transitioned to walking when I first asked ;-)

I also called the barn owner and asked to ride in the arena. (A huge THANK YOU to you, if you're reading this!) I plan to head down there tonight, and am very much looking forward to doing this! I want to be done riding by 5:30pm, so I can be done walking home by dark. That won't leave much riding time since Matt rarely gets home before 4:30, but that fits well with my plan to take it easy! I am sore enough after just 10 minutes of riding yesterday that really I only want to ride for 15 minutes today anyway! (I'm really not much of a believer in "no pain, no gain" - more of a "slow and steady wins the race" kind of girl, haha)

I recently had a comment by Caitlyn I think, but I cannot find which post it was on. She'd asked for pointers on how I plan to get Arabee to rate and steer and stop on a loose rein. I wish I had a more concrete answer for that! Truly, I am not sure I know how to accomplish this, but I have a rough plan. I think it's mostly going to be a problem of retraining MYSELF to let go and quit pestering her with the reins. And that's where using the arena will really help, because I will feel safer doing that - she can't really go anywhere.

For stopping, it's a progressive thing - first I THINK stop, then shift my weight down, then stop my body motion with her movement, then if she still hasn't stopped, I add a verbal cue. Easy, Easy, Arabee - Whoa. My horse knows whoa - it means stop feet NOW! To me that's a critical safety net, and it has saved me from being spilled off more than once. So if she doesn't stop as fast as she can when I say whoa, I then do what I can to MAKE her stop. So, using this method of gradually increasing how I ask, hopefully she'll learn to stop at the first, most subtle cue. I'm guessing/hoping this type of practice will also work with steering. My old gelding Jack used to go in whatever direction I looked, exactly.

So tonight in the arena I plan on riding on a completely loose rein, and using the above procedure for stopping/slowing. For turning, first I will look where I want to go, then point my body in that direction, then use my leg, then use my leg harder until I eventually boot her over. If she still won't turn, then I suppose I'll resort to rein pressure....but I think I really need to reserve that for last ditch efforts to get her used to turning without the rein. So, that's my rough plan.

It's not like she doesn't have a clue, but she's not as precise as I'd like. I'll keep practicing turning and circles and serpentines and patterns until she follows the exact path I want on a loose rein. This will probably take a long time and many sessions, but I think the results will be worth it.

King...err - Queens of the Road (?)

"trailers for sale or rent, rooms to let $0.50, no phone, no pool, no pets. . . I'm a man of means by no means King of the Road!"

All right, so Arabee and I aren't exactly ruling the road, but we sure have been spending a lot of time walking it. Also, I hope at least some of you are humming that song to yourselves while reading this post!

On Sunday I wanted to see how far 15 minutes of handwalking got us as we traveled south. I'll check the distance with the car maybe today if I remember, but we got past B & S's house to "the roost" and then past the north side of the field about 50 feet. I know this means almost nothing to anyone reading, but in another 5 minutes of walking we'd have probably reached the barn with the arena.

Which probably means that it wouldn't be too much of an advantage to trailer Arabee over there if I am able to ride in it again. By the time I'd get the truck started, warmed up, hitched to the trailer, put the tack in the trailer, loaded her up, drove down there, unloaded her, tacked up, got in the barn, rode, got out of the barn, untacked, loaded back up, drove back home, unloaded Arabee, unloaded the tack, parked the trailer, and unhitched the truck....I think it would take about the same amount of time to just walk down there! And I am out of shape enough it will do me a lot of good to do just that!

I am unclear though about the Rules of the road when it comes to walking your horse on it. Pedestrians are supposed to walk against traffic, with the right shoulder towards the road. Bicyclists are supposed to ride with traffic, with the left shoulder towards the road. My guess is that when I'm walking Arabee, we're Pedestrians, but if I were Riding her on the road, we'd ride WITH traffic, like a Bicyclist would? Does anyone know the law on this? I want to follow the rules in case an accident would happen we'd be in the right.

There isn't much traffic on the road, really. In a little over 1/2 hour of walking, only 4 vehicles came by. The trouble is that half of the time the vehicles were noisy trucks, which are a little more scary apparantly for Arabee than SUVs or cars. Judging from her current reaction - I could ride out a passing SUV or car if it slowed down, but it'd be a little iffy if a truck passed. Right now, I make sure we keep walking, and assuming traffic is clear, we turn around and face the vehicle as it approaches. She's fine as it approaches, but once it's behind her she gets a little fast/bouncy. It's good practice for her to be on the road while I'm on the ground.

Her hooves have been improving also since I've been walking her on the road - they look nice! It's so neat to watch the way they wear on their own.

I'll post more soon about the bitless headgear. I've ordered something, and it should ship tomorrow, but I'll wait until I try it out to post more about it.

Also, on Saturday (posting this since a lot of the point of the blog is to keep a log of what we do) I tacked Arabee up - saddle, breastcollar, and crupper, just to remind her that the crupper was okay. I wasn't dressed to ride, so I just walked her down to the house where Matt was unloading a wagonload of fire wood into our woodshed. He'd just finished up, and he fired up the old JD 50 tractor to put the wagon away. Rodeo time! So we walked (me) and bounced sideways (Arabee) along while he put the wagon away, then followed him back. She finally did calm down, but it took a little bit. It took longer than it should've, I think because she was feeling good and it was fun to snort and prance, and it was cold and brisk.

Anyway, I've been having fun gradually getting back in shape, and playing around with Arabee, even if I'm too wimpy to actually get on and ride in the cold right now! We'll get there, soon enough.

Still mulling over the bridle choices

I want to thank all who commented on my last post about bitless options. You gave me good things to think about. Zach - if you find the reasoning behind not using an s-hack comes to mind again, please share it, I'd love to hear. Everyone brought out some good points. I'm not convinced that bitless is for every horse/every rider - as Aarene pointed out, a harsh noseband in the wrong hands can be just as damaging and painful to the horse as a bit. I also agree with E.G. that it should not be the bridle that stops the horse. I think the only way a bridle actually can make the horse stop is if the horse is trained to respond to the pressure, or if the rein is tied to a solid post! For me, the goal is to quide Arabee with seat and legs and voice, and use rein pressure only to remind her I'm up there if she gets spooky, or if she needs to turn right NOW to avoide slamming my knee into a tree.

I rode for the first time again on New Year's Eve, and after that it became bitterly cold - too cold for me to ride in the stuff I have. The lined carhartt overalls I have are too stiff and immobile for me to consider riding in. For Christmas I received as a gift a pair of insulated riding pants, which unfortunately were too small, so I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of the right size so I can ride soon, hopefully. (or else temperatures above freezing!) So, I've been taking Arabee on walks along the road. I'm fairly certain all of the cars passing by think I'm absolutely nuts, judging by their faces. I walked her on New Years Day, Monday, and Tuesday too.

One of those days I tried on the old English Hackamore I have. Unfortunately, the headstall I have to hang it with is too big, and I have no room to adjust it. The nosepiece of the hackamore rested right on her nostrils, so I had no way to really even get a feel for how Arabee might respond in it. So that means I'm looking at having to get another headstall. I really like the idea of the kind that the browband has an extra loop that snaps around the halter, so you can leave the halter on all the time. But, even with the too-big headstall, I didn't really like the way the shank of the English Hackamore laid right along Arabee's lips - seems it would be very easy for her to grab it, rendering any rein aids useless. So if the S-Hack and the English Hackamore operate on the same principles, I'm leaning towards the S-Hack because of the shank design. I feel pretty leery of trying the halter bridle I talked about. I'm certain it would be fine to ride her in something like that on a steamy hot summer day, or in an arena any time - but I'm just concerned that the halter bridle may not be attention-getting enough on the trail if some horse-eating monster comes along.

I have a return that I will get store credit for as soon as I mail item in. So I have a few days yet to decide what it is I'm going to do. I think my husband is right - no matter what it is that I get, I won't really be happy with it. He says I'm too particular about what I want. I'm taking that as a compliment - shouldn't I be particular about my horse's comfort and my confidence that I'll be able to control her in all situations?