Lessons and Ponying and Fit Throwing, Oh My!

My trailer finally came home this week and I've been back to work as usual. It has been raining for over a week, with not even time inbetween squalls to get dry, which is causing me some grief. It's very hard to put out hay when it's muddy, and it's equally as hard to get anything done with anyone. For the most part, rainy days are so infrequent in Texas (or well, they were, before the past two years) that I don't mind taking them off and just getting other indoor things done instead. I do always have the option of taking Dylan to ride, but I don't always want to go muck around loading in the pouring rain.

I will have to split this post into a few so as to not clog up a huge amount of space!

On Monday I trailered out to WD to ride. The place was packed full of people, which is rare - some of them my friends, some of them people I don't like crossing paths with. I much prefer when the place is dead quiet, which is why I usually don't go on weekends. Unfortunately I had forgotten that it was MLK day :/ Since a Dylan had been off for a few weeks, I didn't do a ton of work, just some supplying walk with and simple trot and canter work with shallow half passes to loosen him up a bit. He was tired at the end of the ride, which almost never happens, so I could tell that he had lost a little conditioning. Of all my horses, he is the hardest to keep fit for sure. O's super pregnant and has been off since June, and she's still ripped. Dylan gets off for two weeks, and he comes back a marshmallow. 

On Monday, I also got up on Big Frank, and decided to try ponying with him. We weren't sure if he had ever done it before, but he's so mellow I wasn't really worried. I also tried putting a short shank hackamore on him, to see if I would be able to steer and stop him in it. He is super mellow and slow when he has a friend with him; when he is alone, I need more turning power, and so I figured this was a better time to try a hackamore. I picked Pax to go with him, as I thought she was less likely to worry him. Pax is devoted to him, while Zoodle can be a bit domineering. Zu also likes to bite his pony horse, something which I wasn't sure if Frank would tolerate if he didn't already know how to pony. 

Turns out I had nothing to worry about. He plodded along steady as ever, even though Pax herself was hot and spooky. She looked around, jigged, tossed her head, and skittered at the end of her line for awhile. Frank just walked on. It didn't take long to realize that I had no steering or brakes whatsoever with the hackamore, but it didn't really matter. He goes in a straight line at the same speed for as long as you like. I'm going to put him back in the snaffle for sure, but I see no reason why he won't be able to pony with Zoodle. Actually it might go better than it did with Pax - Pax is much more forward than Frank, and Zoodle's short legs are about the right length to keep up with his plod. Zu has a hard time keeping up with Pmare - he's just too short and she's too forward. 

Pooped

Frank has really upped his big since he got here! He's put a good amount of weight on. He wasn't thin before, certainly, but he looks really good now that he can eat hay again.

On Tuesday, I had another lesson with L. I told her I hadn't worked him much in the past few weeks, so we didn't have to do a lot of hard work. Despite that, she put our butts to work working on some suppling exercises. Primarily, we did 10m circles in each corner, then alternated in the trot from shoulder in to a few steps of half pass and back to a shoulder in, and in the canter a few strides of shoulder in to half pass, and half pass off the rail and leg yielding back to the rail in canter. Suppling exercises like that are really hard, especially in the canter where movements like shoulder in and leg yield are really not easy to execute. They're very good for a horse like Dylan, who doesn't do well with traveling along doing the same thing for long periods of time. We also did some work going from mediums to half steps. I don't have a lot of practice with half steps, but Dylan clearly knew what I was asking for. When I asked K later, she says he has piaffe and has passage started, so now that I know this I intend to play around with it in lessons!

At some point Dylan completely ran out of fuel, and we decided to wrap it up. It was quite a lot of work for not having been ridden for a couple of weeks, and he was tired. We talked a little more about the show schedule - it starts in March, and goes full steam through early summer. 

Back at home, inbetween my lesson and my physio, I decided to hop on old Pmare and take Zoodle for a go. My original thought after seeing Frank do so well with Pax is that he would be better suited to take Zoodle himself, since he tends to walk super slow and Zoodle can't keep up with P very well, but since he had just gone and P hadn't, I chose her.

An older picture, but the same view. I had a trotting video to upload though!

Zoodle was excellent. On his best behavior, interested in everything around him but not spooky, and really being perfect. I was proud of him. We went about two miles and came back around the usual loop, and he didn't put a foot wrong. Much better than his sister the day before.

Pmare though... was a different story. P gets called a cow on a daily basis, with more colorful things interspersed in there as warrants, but she really out-heifered herself that day. She's not a beginner's horse and she never has been, because when she's mad about something she's going to let you know about it. It's why she came with a bucking clause written into her sale contract! That day, we were literally in the very last bit of the ride when I had to stop her to let some cars pass. She did not want to stand when we were so close to home, so she kept barging forward and running into her hackamore. This made her mad, so she started shaking her head and backing up, dragging poor Zoodle along with her. I still wanted her to be capabale of standing immobile for a minute before we walked off again - something she usually is really good about - but she was not having it. The headshaking and backing progressed into full out rearing and throwing herself sideways. She was MAD and she was going to let me know how she felt about it. 

I ended up actually dismounting and leading her back, since I didn't want poor Zoodle to be scared, not after he had been so good. I put him away, pulled out an actual bridle with bit, and rode her back out to the same spot where we had had the problem. 

It fixed nothing. If anything, she was angrier than ever, and she stood immobile while I pony kicked her, trying to get her to just WALK forward from a stand still. I could't get her to go forward at all after the first halt - every time she would respond to my urging it was just to rear and spin, running backwards and bouncing into the air. The second time she tumbled down into the ditch, with no regard to her own safety, I started to wonder if I was going to win this fight.

I never did. I ended up having to dismount again and lead her back because I could NOT. Make. Her. Go. She just wasn't going to do it, and she was getting increasingly dangerous about it. Even when I dismounted and went to back her up out of my space, she put her ears flat back and barged forward, mowing me down out of her way. I hope my neighbors don't call me in for animal cruelty, because I whopped her a good one for that. 

Ungrateful old cow. All I wanted was for you to stand still for 30 seconds so we didn't get run over by a bunch of trucks. 

I have more catching up to do.... in the next post!

Instagram Photo Dump

Once in awhile, I realize that I have a WHOLE bunch of photos that haven't been shared here because most of them don't have enough information to make into an actual blogpost. I don't always have a lot to write about, because some of my weeks would have entries like this: "Gave the stallion a few days off. He got really muddy. I groomed the babies. They wore bridles again, like they did last week. And nobody died." Not tremendously interesting.

 So, instead... PHOTO DUMP!

Dylan and O are still the cutest couple around. Seriously. They're just gross. 

Sharing a haybag at twilight. How romantic. Barf. 

Dylan on patrol

Trying to wash Dylan off, but O was being entirely too helpful....

Being ponied off Dylan

So sap. Much cheesy.

Tonka makes a cameo, proving that not only are my horses super shiny but my dogs apparently are too

Well, when they're not filthy that is. 

Having a man conversation. 

It also apparently has become my mission in life to collect All The Zebra Things for Zu to wear. It's not easy to find zebra patterned stuff in pony size but I'm doing a good job so far!

Spanish steps. I suck at teaching tricks so I'm not sure how far I'll get with this one. It's not a Spanish walk yet... just steps. 

Lunging, and looking at Moo! I have a post about how his training is going coming up. 

Wearing sidereins for the first time. He's too young to work in these much but he has been introduced to the idea now!

Zebra halter, zebra boots... yes, apparently Woof makes zebra patterned boots that are small enough to fit 11 hand ponies. Who knew! I've also found harness pads but not ones that fit my harness. I'll keep looking!

Pax has been getting regular grooms as usual, but now she is starting to wear a bit. She has worn it probably 5 or 6 times now and bridling her is a non event - she opens her mouth and takes the bit, and unlike the mules I can just slip it over her ears without unbuckling the bridle. I will need to get a few more headstalls though... adjusting this one a million times for each baby (different bits, different settings) gets tedious. She is still plenty mouthy with it, but she is a mouthy baby in general. Next year I plan to show her in hand in the FEH, and two year olds are required to wear a bridle. So, bridle it is. 

How not to stand your baby up for a conformation shot

I haven't deliberately done a lot of in-hand work with her because she still has the mental capacity of a squirrel with ADHD, but I tested out some of her groundwork skills the other day to see what will need polishing. While she is still quick to play up when the other horses do something to encourage her (like Dylan and O who both go NUTS galloping and bucking whenever she appears), she seems to be slowly moving towards more mentally able to handle it. Eventually she'll be there but she is only 17 months old. I look at her and I wonder how anyone could consider starting 18 month old horses.... they're still so tiny and babyish to me. 

Anyway. I tried out a few of the basic things I feel they need to know in hand, and was pleasantly surprised to find that she knows all of them and did them all well - stop, stand immobile, back up, and yield haunches to pressure on both sides without issue. It's all stuff I never deliberately taught her per se, but things she just picked up over time during formative handling. I know she also trots in hand because we have worked on that before, but as we get into the winter I'll be trailering her out again so we can work on this more in an arena away from home, and in a bridle as well. 

Srirachy had quite the evening yesterday... She got trimmed, which is now a non-event, but I was wearing TERRIFYING GLOVES OF DEATH which scared her out of her wits when I touched her with my gloved hand. She's never smelled or seen or felt gloves before. Then she had to deal with Very Scary Future Hubs, who eventually convinced her that he could pet her neck and she would not die. So much to deal with! She also helped mow for a couple of minutes since our Lawn Boy didn't show up. 

A lot of scary things

Yesterday afternoon... getting SO FUZZY!

The moole on the hill

Being SASSY! And fat and hairy!

I ordered a mullen mouth butterfly bit that was measured to fit both of these littles, because I thought they would like a mullen and it was suggested to me as well. And.... that went over like a ton of bricks. I tried it on Sriracha but could tell she wasn't going to tolerate being lunged in it, so I took it off. I started to lunge Lendri in it, but she acted out violently and stuck her tongue over the bit and out the side of her mouth. She's never done that before. As it seems that mooles apparently have a hard enough time dealing with bits as it is, I went so far as to stop the session, switch back to the sweet iron snaffle, and continue on. She had no more problems, except for being extra sassy that day. Well there you are... no more butterfly bit for these two. 

Even though the babies are doing their baby things.... there is always time for them to do the most important thing, PLAY!

Mind Over Matter

Over the course of building a business, I have been through many phases of what time means to me, and what busy means to me. When first starting out and transitioning over from a full time job and some small time trimming, I had no time whatsoever, but I only had one horse. Eventually I had two horses, then three, then two again, and then one again, and back to two, and so on. I went from a full time job and small time trimming to a part time job and part time trimming, which inevitably opened up a large portion of free time. When I was not actively working on business building, I had tons of down time to ride and play and do whatever I wanted. I was broke then, but I did all right, and I knew I should enjoy all the time I had, because one day I would have the money instead of the time. The business grew over time, and my free time started to dwindle. I started to have to redefine what "available time and energy for pleasure horse pursuits" started to be. It used to be I would need a full day off to get some real horseytime in. Working days tired me out, and I didn't ride or work horses on those days for the most part. Then my time REALLY started to dwindle, and I realized that if I was going to have horseytime at all, I was going to have to just get over my tiredness at the end of the day and just do it. That was extremely hard for me at first, but I really put my mind to it, and now I get it done. It's not uncommon for me to go out and do 15+ horses, and then ride or lunge a few when I get home. My biggest limitations are daylight and drive time - if I have to drive all over the Metroplex, to get my quota of horses done, it takes significantly longer than if I get them all done in just one or two stops. Every day is different, which is one of the great appeals of my job. I get to see different people every day, take different routes, and have fresh things to work on and see. But I do have to spend some time planning ahead, so that I know for sure when I have time to work whoever needs to be worked. 

The babies take hardly any time at all, although they always take mental energy. The Zoodle Himself is doing extremely well, and continues to be incredibly friendly and kind. He loves people, loves scratches, and will always come over for a snuggle. I've ponied him twice off Pmare, and he continues to get even better at it - he tends to resist for a moment when we start something, then his second answer is generally always "yes" and he proceeds without issue. 

Get a pedicure lady

Dylan is the one who gets the most work, 4 days of riding a week if I can squash it in. This would not be ideal or workable if he was an event horse or a horse who needed a higher level of fitness, but for the time being it's completely achievable in my schedule. It requires me trailering out to ride, which is a rather timely affair. I also have the trouble of not being sure when I will have access to the arena lights at WD, as I tried to use them the other night and they didn't go on. Not good! I need those, and will really need them as the winter approaches. 

I think as I continue to get into more detailed things with Dylan, I'll start fleshing that out better in blogposts. I used to write so much in detail about the rides I would have with Gogo, and have done so much less of that now that I have a bunch of babies who are doing extremely rudimentary and simple things. There is only so much description you can go into when you say, "Groomed the baby. Picked her feet! She was good." But riding an upper level horse when there is SO much in the way of complicated and subtle communication going on... that deserves more fleshing out. 

I bit the bullet this week and rejoined all of the major organizations that I will need for showing - USEF, USDF, and IALHA. The 2017 season in our area starts in the fall, and we go through basically the entire year with shows on the calendar, although the majority of these are jammed up into the spring months when our weather is the best. It's a bit of a circus, trying to get all the paperwork together for this - these organizations all require notarized copies of our lease, which meant K had to go print them off, mail them to me, then I have to go get them notarized, and then send them in with fees paid. Dylan is thankfully lifetime registered with all organizations, so that's taken care of. As for working equitation, I'm a member of WE United and WEIAUSA, and intend to show, but probably my biggest goal is trying to get my silver medal with the USDF. I'll clinic this fall and possibly do some WE schooling shows - and next year, if all goes well, I have my eyes on much bigger prizes, like Pin Oak, Haras, and maybe even the Andalusian World Cup in Las Vegas, as well as the possibility of IALHA Nationals. There is a LOT between now and then, but the possibility of these looming in the imminent foreground is tremendous motivation to get my butt up and go ride, whenever I have the spare time.

Half pass left

Ugh he's so perfect I just love him so much

This doesn't mean I can't take a little down time to have some fun through. On Monday, I did something very different - I rode Dylan bareback and bridleless. I left a halter and lead rope on him, just to be safe in case we coudn't stop, but mostly I rode him in his neckrope. He steers beautifully, although stopping was not quite so easy. How many stallions do you know that somebody can just jump on them bareback and bridless and just go for a spin? He's a special dude, that's for sure. 

Ummm excuse me you're not paying enough attention to me

On the same day that I rode Dylan bareback, I also worked both Sriracha and Lendri. Lendri has basically been off for two months in the summer heat, and has had one lunge this past weekend. I long lined her on Monday, and then this happened...

She's hitched!

She wasn't fully hitched in this picture. The breeching is not on yet. But she is hooked via the traces and pulled the weight of the cart by herself. I approached this way differently than I did with O, who I first dragged a tire with, then put her in drag shafts, and then hooked her to Janky The Training Cart. With Lendri, her intelligence and reactions made me approach this differently. I think I'll approach it differently for every one that I break to drive. I certainly didn't just stick it on her and go - not at all. There was a lot of careful introduction, of leading her and rolling the cart next to her, and behind her, of placing her between the shafts to feel them, of pulling the cart along behind her with her in the shafts but not hooked. She did so well that by the end of everything, I had her pulling the cart by herself with full weight in the breastcollar, although not with breeching as I think that needs more desensitization - she might speed up and get fast when she feels it for the first time. As you can tell by her expression, she was not terribly bothered by the entire ordeal. 

9 months ago, she was at the kill pen and so wild that I almost couldn't wrangle her onto my trailer. I can't believe how far she has come!!

Speaking of wild, Sriracha was not terribly good this week, but here she is lunging with harness and bridle: 

We need much work with acclimating her to the bridle. It took her two seconds to figure out how to flip her tongue over it, which then pinched her tongue and made it bleed. That's not exactly the best way to teach a mule that the bit is not a bad thing. This snaffle is an eggbutt with a double jointed copper alloy mouthpiece, so it's about the nicest thing I could put in there, but I may need to look for something else. 

Despite all that, she sure is fancy isn't she? 

Hot Hot Heat

As other Texas bloggers have recently been writing about, it's hot. Like, really hot. Like really REALLY REALLY HOT in Texas right now. I'm starting to think Dylan torqued his leg just because he wanted a summer break from the heat. Can't really fault that logic. 

His leg is looking good and he seems quite sound. The leg isn't as *perfectly* tight as the other one, but it may never be exactly the same. He goes back on Friday for a two-week checkup ultrasound and lameness evaluation. Dr. H was pretty optimistic that he would be back to work within pretty short order, so I am hoping we get some good news. He's been completely out of wraps for about a week - it's SO HOT right now that I felt like wrapping was just keeping excess heat in, and not helping anything. He still gets poulticed and coldhosed, and during the day has been back in his fly leggings (because he is a man baby and bug bites make him chew on his poor widdle leggies). I've been thinking I should get him a pair of Equisleeves, which are less hot and bulky than standard quilts and have the dual purpose of not letting the bugs bother him. Anyone use them and like them? I've never used a pair before. 

The temporarily out of commision fatties club

O's kind of getting a belly on her isn't she! Well, it could be just fat... but.... we'll say it's a wee baby bump. Her udders are changing too, which I find super interesting. Her baby is about the size of a kitten right now, so certainly not very big yet. She's completely peaceful and zenned out with her pregnancy hormones - she's such a nice, quiet, sensible mare when she's not in heat! I miss working her, but she gets groomed and doted on every day which she finds quite agreeable. 

In the meantime while I wait for Dylan to heal up, and despite the heat, there are a bunch of wee babes and youngsters to be worked!

Lendri's first ponying

Love/hate relationship. Lendri loves P, and P hates her. 

Good baby!

P is not sure when she got signed up for resident baby-dragger, but she is pretty certain that she did not authorize that assignment. Luckily, the more she gets ridden the better she is, so even though she tends to gripe about it when we first get going, once she is out on the trail she is all ears forward and marching onward. Her soundness actually feels better now that she is starting to be ridden more often - she may have just needed to grease her joints up and get moving, since she is the one who basically parks herself at the haybag and never EVER leaves. She is that lazy slob that eats twice as much as anyone else, poops twice as much, and walks 5 feet to her pooping spot, 5 feet to the water trough, and 5 feet back to the haybag. She never goes ANYWHERE else. So I don't feel too bad putting her back to light trail work, because she needs to move way more than she does!

She really is a great pony horse. She gets on with anyone, drags them when they don't want to go, doesn't get upset if they do something silly, and just keeps marching along no matter what happens. She also stands parked immobile, which is immeasurably useful, especially when teaching babies about standing still. Pax is probably the least wiggly baby I've ever met, which is nice. She stands still for everything, including standing whenever we stop while out ponying. Pax gets better every time we pony, although I did start putting a rope halter on her to remind her about her manners. She about pulled my arm out of my socket when she tried dragging us all a few pony sessions ago.

And Lendri is now starting to pony too! She went for her first ponying lesson yesterday and did very well. I originally put the Be Nice halter on her, anticipating some trouble, but it actually caused more problems (i.e. her putting on the brakes and refusing to move) that I took it off and just used her regular halter. She surprised me with how well she can keep up with Pmare! She is a FAT little sausage so ponying is really a good thing for her - gets her exercised!



And Sriracha is still the Valedictorian of the mooles. She is so incredibly smart! Not having any prior handling has actually been the biggest benefit of all - she's just this totally open book, waiting to be written in. She's learning at such a high rate of speed that it just floors me every time I work with her. And I don't work with her every day either - every day, she gets a cookie and gets petted a bit and talked to, but certainly not pulled out of the field and worked with. Whenever she does get worked with, if something makes her unsure, she might wiggle and flinch, but as soon as she realizes whatever it is isn't going to hurt her, she is immediately fine. Today she let me pick out her hind feet for the first time, and it was SO worth it to wait for her to come around for that. I tossed a saddle pad on and off her a few times, which she was a bit flinchy about, but then on a whim I decided to show her the harness and see how she reacted.

In about 2 minutes, she was wearing it fully girthed, crupper and breeching included, like she had been doing it her entire life. As is usual with her, she was super squinchy when I pulled up her tail - which I had never touched before - but she was completely fine with it once she realized it was all right. I've been lunging Lendri in harness for months now and I STILL have trouble getting her crupper on, every time. (Admittedly I'm 100% sure Lendri was abused.)

Piece of cake. I honestly think she won't be all that hard to teach to drive. I've had my lingering doubts about whether or not Lendri will ever really be a driving candidate or not, but I have no doubts about Sriracha.


Now we just have to get Dylan well... if I can find him under all the dirt that is....

She Trots!

It took 6 months for me to really be able to see it, but yes, Pax does in fact trot and it's pretty cute!

I saw her trotting a few sproingy steps the other day that were beyond just her usual bouncing around. Her preferred speed is canter for sure, so I know exactly what her canter looks like (also cute), but not her trot. On a whim, I decided to see if I could get her to trot out for the camera. I've never taught her this, but by now she leads very well, so I figured it was worth trying.


I've been taking her out every couple days, tying her to the trailer, and grooming her. She is a very good baby and she stands like a little rock, totally nonplussed by this. The rest of the horses get very upset when I pull her out, but it doesn't bother her one bit. I lead her around in increasing amounts after I groom her each time, and she is happy to leave all the other horses and head out. She never wants to go back into the paddock either - she always balks at the gate and doesn't want to step forward. That's the kind of ethic I like to see!

She does still act the fool sometimes when being led - if something spooks her, she definitely is liable to leap around, scoot, rear, and strike at the air like the Black Stallion. She gets better about it every time but she hasn't quite yet connected the fact that work time does not equal play time. She will get there - she is only 6 months after all. She hates to be reprimanded like any kid, but she does respond, especially when she does it to herself like galloping off and hitting the end of the lead rope.


I set up my camera and tried to see if she would trot - and she does! I haven't taught her this but she seems to understand the basic concept of go-with-the-human, so she was happy to jump right up into the trot every time I jogged forward.

Pretty cute little tot

I have a clip of the video in slow-mo too. Caveat: I did not think the idea through in advance and therefore didn't even have a bra on. I was basically trotting down the road in my pajamas with no underwear on. Sorry about my flopping boobs and SUPER classy outfit. I'm pretty good at putting together a Walmart-worthy barn outfit, I'll say that about myself. 

Classy, classy girl, that's me.

You can see why I think she'd make a cute hunter though, with that very flat-kneed floaty trot. 

Today we tried something new too: ponying! 

Here let me eat this bridle for you

She was actually quite good, better than I expected. She still had plenty of bouncing, rearing, and acting goofy, but since O is big and strong I could just kind of pull her along and stop the nonsense. She eventually started to get tired and began dragging behind a little bit, which is when we called it a day. We were out walking around the front yard for maybe 10-15 minutes. 

I don't think I will be ponying her again until we stop the rearing nonsense while leading. She is still just a little babe too and while I think these lessons are important to learn early, there is no sense in overdoing them. But it will be very handy for the future, as I will be able to pony her out on O for trailventures and experience. Plus, if I am to make a pair out of them in the future (if I don't sell her, of course), they will be working together a lot. 

O thinks Pax is a giant annoying pest but she clearly was delighted to be smooshed up against another warm body. Pax doesn't seem to care whether or not she is near the other horses, but O does - O LIVES for her herd. She can't function without it. Having a herd member there next to her all the time will probably multiply her happiness tenfold. She goes out and drives alone with no issues, and can pass by other horses without freaking out or getting herdbound, but I'm pretty sure if she had her way she would never detach herself from her buddies. 

Pax does seem to have inherited P's personality, which is what I was hoping for - with the added bonus of being really, really friendly. She always comes right to you in the pasture, she wants attention, she likes to be groomed and messed with. P can't be bothered with any of that, so I am super pleased that Pax likes all of it!