Gentry – 05/02/09

Originally, Maggie was going to ride Gentry, but her girth was too big for him.  Then Anne said she’d ride him with her English saddle, but he wouldn’t stand still for her to get on, even with me holding him.  He’d prance and dance, then when she was finally up, he turned into a total jerk and came up off his front feet a few times.  We had Maggie’s bitless bridle on him and Anne’s saddle fit him fine, so there was absolutely no reason for him to be such a jerk!  I didn’t want Anne to get hurt, so had her get off so I could ride him and Anne would ride Willow.  Maggie rode Misfire in her new oh so comfy treeless saddle.

He stood fairly still for me to mount, but once I was in the saddle there was no standing still for him.  That horse just wants to move.  He doesn’t have to run, or even do a running walk, but if he’s not moving in one direction or another, he’s entirely unhappy.  He doesn’t even jig and prance, which is what you usually find with a horse that can’t stand still. 

Even in the bitless bridle there was a lot of head tossing nonsense, especially in the first 15 minutes of the ride or when I asked him to stand still and wait for the girls to catch up.  He’s got a very large ground-eating walk stride and he soon left the calmer mares behind.  At first it seemed like he’d never been on trail before, which I knew wasn’t the case.  Leaving our property we had to cross a teeny little 6” dry ditch and he thought it was the end of the world.  Later in the ride I realized that most of his worry was probably because Willow and Misfire were currently in front of him.  How dare they!!  He should be in the lead at all times!  Any time one of the girls was in the lead, he was a rearing, pawing, nervous maniac.

Once out on the trails, he did fine with water crossings and mud puddles.  He never spooked at anything, even when we passed the huge rusty oil/gas wells that usually give new horses at least a moment of pause as they consider the odds of getting eaten.  As long as Gentry was in the lead, all was well in his world. 

I would stop him often and ask him to stand to wait for the girls.  Sometimes he’d stand quietly until they caught up, then it was back to pawing and head tossing until I let him move off again.  Other times, there was no getting him to stand without the head tossing, pawing, and coming off his front feet in a semi-rear.

He’s still very disjointed between front and rear which doesn’t help with his lack of surefootedness!  When going down a steep hill, if I didn’t half-halt my way down the hill and keep him somewhat balanced, he might have hit himself in the nose with his front feet!  Good trail horses will look at a steep downgrade and take their time, picking their way, and watching where they place their feet.  Not Gentry!  If I let him have his head, he was walking down that hill as fast as he could, head held high, front legs swinging wildly out to the side.  Also, he loves to throw his head to the ground when going downhill in an effort to throw his rider over his shoulder.  NICE.

Gentry is going to take a good bit of work before I’m comfortable adopting him out to someone that doesn’t have experience working with his type of issues.  To sum up, here’s a list of things he needs to improve before going anywhere:

1) The incessant head tossing, and taking the bridle better (he was even a pain about putting on the bitless!)

2) Standing quietly while being mounted and not moving off until asked.

3) He needs to be comfortable anywhere in a string of horses on the trail, not just in the lead.

4) Standing quietly on the trail.

5) Hill work!

6) I need to find an equine chiropractor to come out and adjust him.  I think a lot of his disjointed movement when not collected comes from his long back.  A couple of times on the trail yesterday I felt something click under my bum.  I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the saddle, so I’m thinking it was him.  He didn’t seem bothered about it, but it’s best to get it looked at before I go any further with him.

General – 04/29/09

Between work keeping me at the computer until late in the evening and my spare time being spent on halter breaking the new youngsters, I haven’t had a lot of time for any of the other horses lately.  Maggie is heading over this Saturday and we’re hoping to get just about everyone worked one way or the other.  She doesn’t know it yet, but I’ll be asking her to write up her own posts for the horses that she rides.  I can’t wait to get another rider’s input on some of these guys! 

Gentry – 04/16/09

It’s been raining all week and today was the first warm sunny day that I’ve had to ride.  Gentry has been sound for over a month, so I decided that today was the day to try him out and see what he knows.  I was really excited to be getting on a well-trained Tennessee Walker.  It’s been years since I had my two TNW mares and I was really looking forward to a nice comfortable ride.

Is there a chiropractor in the house???

We started out badly, as he has terrible head manners and wouldn’t stop slinging his head around while I was grooming and tacking him.  He was difficult about taking the snaffle and kept knocking me around every time I was within reach.  It got to the point where I’d stick out an elbow and let him bop himself on it whenever he slung that big head my way.

I took him out to the back pasture and put him on the lunge line first.  It was obvious from the get go that he was a pro at lunging, so I didn’t waste too much time before I just got on him.  He didn’t want to stand still for me to mount, which is a pet peeve of mine and something I’ll need to work with him on.

I will say that Gentry’s canter, trot, and running walk were wonderful.  His canter is one that I dream of getting on Kita one of these days.  It was slow, collected, balanced and just plain dreamy to ride.  He wanted to trot more than gait, but I did get some nice running walks out of him and as long as he wasn’t slinging his head and playing with the bit, he was smooth.

But how do I describe his walk??  I seriously feel like I need a chiropractic adjustment after riding him for 40 minutes tonight and it’s all because of his walk.  For one thing, it feels his hind end is completely discombobulated.  My left hip felt like it was being shoved into my belly button with each forward stride from his left hind.  What gets me, is that he looked perfectly fine on the lunge line.

He did do a lot of stumbling, but only when he head his head in the air looking for the herd.  He’s a bit herd bound, but calmed down within the first 15 minutes and I was able to ride him out of sight and sound of the herd without him getting too worked up.  He’s very out of shape from being a pasture potato all winter and the more tired he got, the less he wanted to gait and the more he just wanted to trot.  But even his trot is smooth, as long as he doesn’t sling that head around.

I’m hoping the hind end starts to come together with the front end with exercise.  And we definitely need to work on that head slinging!

Tabby – 04/08/09

I’ve ridden Tabby a few times since the last blog post, but if I blog about every uneventful ride of circles, halts, and transitions, someone might think I was a card or two short of a full deck.  And we certainly don’t want that.  Even if it is true some days.

Last night Kayla and her brother, Jessie, came out to do some volunteer work with the horses.  A lot of help that I need is grooming, lunging, and riding.  As the two are intermediate riders, they’ll be a great help for giving some of the more experienced horses some exercise, but neither of them knew much about lunging or riding a green horse.  Jessie wants to adopt Abby when she’s ready, so we got Tabby saddled and Abby on the lunge line for the first time.  I started with Abby, giving Jessie some pointers and the basics of lunging:  stand at her hip to make her move forward, move to her shoulder when asking for a whoa, move in a smaller circle within her circle to stay at her hip, use consistent voice commands.  Abby seems to have had a little training on the lunge, but she still insisted on turning into Jessie at every opportunity. 

After Jessie was on his way with Abby, I gave Tabby over to Kayla for a lunging lesson.  Tabby is much better on the lunge, so after a few minutes of Kayla proving that she had the knack of it, I went ahead and mounted up.

As usual, Tabby stood perfectly still for mounting.  She’s moving off my leg much better now and feels so much stronger and sure of herself under saddle.  Her halts are getting much better and she doesn’t toss her head as much and stops when I roll back on my seat before I even ask with the reins.  She’s also getting better about standing still.  I’d like to get her out on the trail, but need to wait until someone can go with me on another horse for safety’s sake.

As I was finishing up with Tabby, I asked Jessie if he wanted to ride her for a few minutes.  He wants to be involved in Abby’s training and is a quick learner when it comes to riding.  At first, Tabby didn’t want to pay attention to Jessie and just followed me around.  Eventually, he had her doing as he asked and the two looked great together.

Next week when the kids come out, Tabby will be ready for a short trail ride.  Sounds like fun!

Tabby – 03/24/09

Tabby did extremely well again tonight!  I don’t even know why I bother lunging her before getting on anymore.  She stands perfectly still for me to mount and waits for me to cue her to walk on.   Today we had a bit of a problem at first, as she thought backing up would be the way to go when I gave her a squeeze.  After backing for 10’ or so, she finally figured out that forward was easier.   Mind you, the reins were totally lose the whole time she was backing up.

She only whinnied for her buddies a few times tonight, which is a drastic reduction from the almost non-stop crying she did the first time.  I took her on a mini trail ride around the top pasture, and the only signs she showed of being nervous was not wanting to walk a straight line.   She started tossing her head when she really got worried about being so far from the herd, so I circled her a few times until she relaxed, then headed back towards the barn.  

On the way back we did more circles, figure eights, and worked on our Whoa.  Whenever I asked her to whoa, there would be head tossing, turning on the forehand, and maybe, just maybe, she’d eventually stop for a split second.   Every time she’d stop moving I’d loosen the reins as a reward.  If she moved off again before I asked for it, I’d bring her back to a whoa, wait till she stopped moving, then loosen the reins.  It took about 10 stops for her to learn that stopping and standing was a good thing, worthy of much praise and adoration from me.

Once she had figured out the whoa, I headed back to the barn and on the way up the hill I asked for a trot.  It took a little convincing, but she finally picked up a nicely paced trot and continued it all the way up the hill.  At the top, I sat down and squeezed the reins, gave her a “WHOA”, and she came down to a walk with a bit of head tossing then stood quietly as I dismounted and loosened the cinch.

She’ll be ready for Mikayla in no time at this pace!  What a good girl!

Misfire – 03/19/09

Tonight was my first ride on Misfire and I was a bit wary because of the things I had heard about her.  She’d been abused and was a handful to ride, yet she was well broke and had been ridden in parades and shows.

We took her into the top pasture, which is currently closed off to the herd to let the grass grow.  Her little herd is in the back pasture, which runs alongside the top pasture so her buddies could run along the fence and scream about the fact that she’d been taken away.  I got her tacked up and started with lunging.  I couldn’t really be sure this mare was even broke to ride so it’s better safe than sorry.  She lunged beautifully, so it was obvious she’d had at least some training in her past.  She was very nervous and spent a lot energy calling to her buddies and trying to get away.  She paid very little attention to me so it was time to just mount up and ride. 

Her attitude didn’t change once I was in the saddle.  She didn’t care that I was up there – she just wanted to be back with her herd.  NOW.  We spent a lot of time just doing circles and figure eights, making her think about where her feet were going instead of where her friends were.  She reacted very well to leg aids and I was able to guide her with just my legs for the most part, while keeping her from taking off back towards her pasture with my seat and hands.  She’s obviously had a lot of training at some point, I think it’s just been a long time since she’s been ridden. 

After about 20 minutes of just walking, bending, and circling, she finally relaxed into my hands, stopped the jigging, and slowed her pace.  It was now acceptable for us to go over the hill and out of sight of her herd mates.  This mare just needs some mileage put on her and I think she’ll be a great mount for someone.

Tabby – 03/19/09

I haven’t had a chance to get back on Tabby until tonight.  The plan was to lunge her for a few minutes to get her warmed up and make sure she had all the kinks out, then get on her and follow Glenn and Willow on a mini trail ride around the top pasture.

The lunging went fine and she was a calm and willing to please as ever.  She stood still for me to get on and waited for her cue to walk off.  She’s still a bit herd bound and as we were walking away from the barn she called for her sisters, but never once offered to buck or spin.  She just kept marching away and even led the way in front of Willow.  Willow was being a total witch for Glenn – she wouldn’t listen, tried running out from under him several times, and even reared on him twice.  Tabby ignored Willow’s shenanigans for the most part and just kept walking the direction I pointed her.

Then we found some deer who thought it would be great fun jump as soon as we rounded the corner, then bound away like a sabertooth tiger were after them.  Tabby simply threw up her head and looked at them and kept moving forward on a loose rein.  Just as I was about to tell her how much I adored her, I heard loud profanities and the sound of frantic hoof beats behind me.  I looked back to find Glenn on the ground and Willow galloping and bucking her way back to the barn, with the saddle sliding dangerously off to the left.

I could feel Tabby getting tense, so before she decided she wanted to join Willow, I hopped off.  It’s better to get off while she’s standing there being a good girl, rather than force a big fight on only her second ride.  Glenn was fine, just a little sore and incredibly angry.  Willow had not only run back to the barn, but had jumped the fence to join the rest of the herd.  We found her unhurt, but with the saddle hanging below her belly and one stirrup missing.  I think that’s the last time he’ll get on before tightening the girth.

I got back on Tabby once we were back in sight of the barn and everyone had calmed down.  I can’t express how impressed I am with this mare!