Horses have the same reaction to a clean white T-shirt as a vandal does to a freshly painted wall. This is why I have a lot of T-shirts.
Category: Horses
Horse show
Yesterday got off to a rocky start for me when I realized that it was 6:58 and although I had planned to leave the house at 7:10, I hadn’t yet dressed nor eaten breakfast, nor had I fed the horses or dogs. I somehow managed to get to the barn by 7:32 anyway, two minutes after I was supposed to be there. Since I had agreed to drive my truck and horse trailer, my presence was important. My trainer was taking the same two horses ridden by the same two students that had shown so successfully in July.
The turnout for this show was much smaller, but the overall quality of the competition was higher. In our private barn lingo, there were some “nice horses” there, ie expensive horses from barns with good trainers. Although Danny (in photo) and Indy are cute grade horses, they are not expensive. I happen to think I have a very good trainer, but our barn is small and rarely goes to shows, so we aren’t particularly well known.
Unfortunately, once again we had to give the kids and their parents the “you know, you don’t always place in every class” talk to try to manage expectations for future show. Actually, Indy did not place in one of his classes: he tried to duck out of the in gate during one of his rounds, presumably getting eliminated for bad manners. This was a different judge from last time, and she liked Danny and Indy too. I kept staring at our little grade horses, then at the big fancy Thoroughbreds and Warmbloods, and shaking my head.
Of course, there were also plenty of other non-fancy horses. I particularly lost my heart to one old Appaloosa, who had a swarm of three small riders. One rode him while the other two little girls would attempt to lead him simultaneously in opposite directions. He would occasionally roll his eye as if to say, “See what I have to put up with? Aren’t I a good horse?” I think he placed in most of his classes as well.
Lily
Yesterday, I put a saddle on Lily for the first time since she injured herself. It is too soon to be riding her, but after having handwalked her for several weeks, it is time to start longing her at a trot. I rarely use side-reins when I longe a horse, but they do give me a little extra leverage and control if the horse decides to play on the longe line. Since I don’t have a surcingle, I run the side-reins from the bit to the billets of the saddle.
So far, Lily does not seem tempted to play. However, I only asked her to trot five circles in both directions the first day, and eight circles in both directions today. So far, she looks blessedly, beautifully sound as she trots, with no strain apparent afterward in the injured leg.
The Road Home
The lines on our road were repainted today. I was trapped behind the truck doing so on my way out this morning.
I arrived at the barn just as my trainer was preparing to set out on the trail with a group of kids. I briefly considered grabbing Hap (who does not get ridden on the trail by the young woman who is leasing him) but my trainer suggested I take Magic, a friend’s horse. (Magic’s superior quality is indicated by the fact that she is one of the few horses I ever had the guts to hunt. Back when we were both a lot younger and fitter, of course.) I was happy that I didn’t take Hap because two of the other horses on the ride became quite rude at one point. Hap’s response to other horses’ rudeness has always been, “Look at me: I can beat that!”
We rebuilt a few old brush jumps so that the kids could start getting a feel of what cross country is like. The horses were kind enough to jump them even though most of the jumps could have been trotted.
I saw an amazing variety of wild-flowers considering how late in the season it is, probably due to the afternoon storms we have been having. The meadows through which we were riding looked as though they belong on a postcard titled “Colorado High Plains.”
Bed check
During summer, I almost always have the bedroom windows open. Last night, I was reading in bed when I heard a tremendous clatter, followed by a squeal. I waited for a few tense moments, but heard only silence. I wasn’t dressed, so I called to Jack and asked him to check the horses. Then I decided I should go out as well, since it was warm enough for my pajamas. I put on my sneakers and grabbed the flashlight.
As we approched the barn, I could see Rags and Smoke standing in Smoke’s stall. We turned on the barn lights, and the two horses gazed at us with great innocence. Jack went into the stall with them and couldn’t see any fresh scrapes on either horse or new damage to the barn. I wonder what they were doing?
Lily
The vet came by this morning to check Lily, who attempted to bow a tendon two weeks ago. We were all extremely pleased to see that the injured left leg, which has been in a gel cast for two weeks, is now identical to the perfect right leg. The vet couldn’t get even an ear flicker as she palpated the leg, so Lily is not feeling any tenderness. It couldn’t be better at this stage.
For three days we will keep her in her current tiny paddock (made by closing off the end of a long run) without any cast or other support. Then, if all goes well, she will be allowed into the larger ran. In ten days or so, I will begin handwalking her. Despite the good news, we still have a lengthy rehabilitation ahead of us.
A Good Day Goes Bad
Yesterday morning I went to my trainer’s barn to help her with a class. She has one little seven year old girl who is a beginner beginner. My trainer doesn’t usually take them that young, but this little girl’s first word was probably “horse.” We quickly learned to never ask her if she has had enough riding, because she is never ready to get off the pony on her own.
Usually I work with the beginner while my trainer works with the other kids. However, yesterday morning she handed me the megaphone and took the little girl into the center of the arena to work with her. I had to figure out what to do with five students of varying ability without using the center of the arena. There was one advanced teenager on a fiery Thoroughbred named Cappy; a not very advanced teenager on my trainer’s old show hunter Havoc; the perfect kid on the grulla Indy; the kid who is a pretty decent rider but doesn’t get out much on Danny, the small Arab cross; and the kid who wants to show on Major, the impressive looking Percheron cross.
Continue reading A Good Day Goes Bad
Hap goes home
From what I imagine is Hap’s point of view, I took him home to my trainer’s barn yesterday, after he spent five months with Rags and Smoke. The young woman who had a half lease on him last fall is leasing him again for the summer. In the ten years that I’ve owned him, he has spent less than a year at our place.
After we allowed him to work off some energy in the arena, we turned him out with his buddies in the gelding field. I’ve seen some horses quail under the curious attentions of a herd, but Hap seemed to enjoy the horses pressing up around him. There was remarkably little squealing and striking. It probably helped that Hap was the second most dominant horse when he left, and good friends with the dominant gelding, Havoc.
I always flinch a little when I turn a horse out with others for the first time after a break. I keep telling myself that it is good for their little psyches, but the rough and tumble can be very hard on their bodies.
Happy Hour
Originally, the dog run extended all the way to the horse field. However, sharing a common fence line allowed the horses (primarily Smoke) and the dogs to spend far too much time entertaining themselves by fence fighting. In an effort to save our ear drums, and those of our neighbors, Jack put up the chain link panels creating what we call the “buffer zone.” Occasionally, we let the horses into the buffer zone to eat down the grass, and a good time is had by all.
Meadowlarks and Irises
My friend and I took Havoc and Lily out on a short trail ride today in the mid-afternoon. I had spent some time training Lily to get in my trainer’s trailer and we both needed a break. Although Lily loads fine into a slant load, she doesn’t like the looks of my trainer’s straight load two horse trailer. She also loads well into my stock trailer as long as there aren’t any horses in it. Nor does she permit any other horses to be loaded behind her. Since my stock trailer has no dividers, this means that a three horse trailer can only hold one horse.
Last year when I took Lily out on trail rides, she rarely wanted to stop and graze. She has relaxed a lot since then, or grown up a bit, because she now is quite eager to graze. Since I’ve done a lot of clicker training with her, I just click to her when I wish her to eat. She seems to really like trail rides now, and all the juicy grass, which is usually hard to come by in Colorado.
While we were out on the trail, we listened to the meadowlarks, and looked at the profusion of wildflowers. We ride on a ranch (slated for development, unfortunately) and most of it is open grasslands and rolling hills, overlooked by Pikes Peak. Our prize find among the wildflowers was a single, perfect wild iris. We didn’t see any pronghorns like we did on our last ride. It is still not unusual to see them west of I-25, despite the encroachment of suburbs.