It Doesn't Matter if It's Real or Pretend

My wife and I have an understanding when we are riding. We have given each other the right to say anything about riding or horsemanship without fear of recriminations. Now in any other life endeavor this could be potentially a very dangerous situation, but with the horses it's working our for us..so far. Twenty nine years of marriage helps too.

A couple of weeks ago we went on a "wild flower" ride through some cattle graze lands. The grass was high and when we stopped, the horses would nibble. Because we were with other riders who we had just met, we were reluctant to correct this bad behavior. Needless to say, once we got back they were looking to drop their heads and chomp at every opportunity.

I use Clinton Anderson's yielding hindquarters exercise when Jessie tries to eat grass. A couple of corrections and she gave up her union card. My wife was having a problem with her quarter horse, Dusty. He just wasn't getting it. I could tell she was getting frustrated. I couldn't see anything specifically wrong with what she was doing, but never-the-less it wasn't working.

The next weekend we went out, Dusty was still looking to graze. This time I noted my wife was a little slow with making the correction and she wasn't getting the energetic movement of the hind feet. Now, I just had to figure out a way to politely convey this.

Here's what we did: We found a spot away from any grass and I said we needed to practice yielding the hindquarters "energetically". I started demonstrating this. Jessie does this exercise fairly well, but for the purpose of my demonstration I said, "And you can't do this angrily. Just do it like you're enjoying it and as if you could do it all day long."

Then, thinking I was demonstrating some wonderful insight, I said, "Now watch what happens when you raise your voice and scold your horse." And I did that. But even though I was acting, my heart rate increased, my body tensed up, and I could feel Jessie tensing up too. It surprised me. It was amazing the physiological changes that took place just by "pretending" to be angry.

I stopped and looked at my wife and said, "Honey, you gotta try that." She did and she felt the same thing too. We practiced it a couple of more times without the pretending and we both got quicker and more effective. And, there was a lot less anxiety.

We moved back over to a grassy area and she kind of dared Dusty to nibble and when he did, she went into action. He tried it once more on that ride and did not even try on Sunday's ride.

We both learned a bit. A little preparation can prevent frustration. And it's hard to train your horse if you are angry.

Riding vs Gardening

Last weekend the weeds in the garden were up to mid-calf. The alternating rain and sunshine, along with my benign neglect, helped them to thrive. They demanded attention and I knew if I didn't intervene quickly they would soon become a much bigger problem. Add to this that we had the nursery delivering a fifteen foot raywood tree for the front yard and I had to dig a 30" x 30" hole to accommodate it, and the prospect of riding was not looking good.

I decided to use riding as my motivation and was up early working on the hole for the tree. Thirty by thirty is a really big hole! After a break for lunch it was time to tackle the weeds. I ran the rototiller for about an hour and then sprayed roundup for another hour.

I had enough of a sense of accomplishment that I could, in a clear conscious, go riding. Another short break, and I was brushing Jessie. The heavy shedding is almost done now. Her coat is looking shiny. Her tail was a mess and I spent some extra time on that end.

We did a little groundwork. First, we started with some de-sensitizing, then lungeing for respect, then yielding both hind and fore quarters. Jessie was responsive and willing and we were able to move through these exercises with what I like to call alacrity.

There is a foreclosed house with a good sized field at the end of our block and they have taken the fence down. Many of the horse people in the neighborhood have been using the field as an "arena". It is a nice area with only a few gopher and squirrel holes and it has two usable fences. We like to think of it as our way of helping to keep their weeds down.

We worked on some warm up exercises here by doing a little bending, yielding and trotting. Then we worked along the fence doing some turn backs as we continue to grow into a rollback. Jessie has improved on these quite a bit. She used to really lean on the bit when I turned her into the fence. On this day she let me bend her and she changed direction very well.

Once we were warmed up, we loped around the area a few times. I practiced one rein stops and picking up the correct lead. We spent about thirty minutes in the "arena" and then enjoyed a nice ride along the canal bank. It was a beautiful afternoon and great way to cap off a long day.

A Tribute to Smokey

The very first dog I trained was named Smokey, an Aussie Queensland Heeler cross. He learned obedience and we had fun with the Frisbee. Frisbee dogs enjoyed a brief surge in popularity in the mid-80's. We gave demonstrations at college football halftimes, churches, and schools. It was a bunch of fun.

You can see what I looked like 25 years ago, but more importantly see how good my best friend really was. Enjoy!

Wildflower Ride In Woody

Our local ETI club had scheduled a ride for Saturday up in Woody, a nearby community. The weather forecast called for rain on Saturday. I am almost required to go to our Natural Food Convention in Anaheim and planned to go down early on Saturday. As it turned out, ETI moved their ride to Sunday and even though I spent all day Saturday at classes and walking the convention floor, we decided to try and make this ride. I'm glad we did.

The time change was tough as we had to get up an hour earlier. We hooked up the trailer. The horses loaded quickly and we were off. Woody is about 70-90 minutes north of town in the foothills. Only the last 12 miles or so are on a windy road. We got there just in time to join the other eight riders.



Jessie still has some issues riding in the trailer. She was sweaty when she walked off the trailer.




We headed off along the rolling hills of green grass and wildflowers. It was in the high 60's or low 70's and clear blue skies.







There were cows grazing on the property and occasionally we had to wait for them to move out. For the most part the horses behaved themselves. Grass nibbling was a problem. The lush green grass was up above their knees in some places and the temptation was just too great at times. There were these little flying bugs in some of the boggy areas and Jessie to great exception to them. She shook her head and swished her tail. They seem to bother her more than the other horses.


Cows laying around in the upper part of this picture.


Don't know why I'm leaning forward here


Wildflower Pictures









We rode for about two hours and then sat around and socialized for about an hour. The club had brought food and drink. We got to meet some new riding friends and spend the day in the sunshine. It doesn't get much better than this.

A Great Story

I listen to a lot of podcasts. One of my favorites is The Moth. It is stories told live in front of an audience without notes. This story by Sam Shepard was great and it involved his horse Roanie. I thought I would share:

Sam Shepard's Horse Story

A Little Groundwork - A Little Ride

I spent most of Saturday removing our old checkout counter at work. The twelve foot coffin refrigerator had to go out in one piece. We finally go it out. There was about four buck in change underneath it. It was like digging through someone's sofa. After the refir was out I called the cabinet guy who brought the new custom-made counter. We put the top from the old counter, which has been our counter for probably fifty years, on to the new counter.












I got home late in the afternoon on Saturday. I moved the horses around so Jessie and I could do groundwork in the small area. We did a bit of LFR I & II some yielding and back-up along with some de-sensitizing. I took off her lead rope to see if she would let me do some of the exercises at liberty and to my surprise she did. As a matter of fact, she didn't leave me once.

Sunday we went for a ride out to the development and did the usual stuff. She didn't act up at all. Her loping is better, but steering her while loping is still a chore. We rode for about two hours and then had to get home and do some gardening. All the rain is making the weeds grow...

More Rain Presents some Training Opportunities

It rained a little more than half an inch on Saturday. For an area that barely gets 6 inches a year, that's a lot of water in one day. Sunday cleared enough to ride out. (We had hoped to head to the river, but the weather was still unsettled.)

There were plenty of puddles on our trail and we got to work on our water crossings. I gave Jess a little groundwork warm up and I do think it helped as we headed down the canal bank. They all tended to be concerned with every new blade of grass or piece of trash that wasn't there a month ago.

About a mile out we came upon a pretty big puddle. It was about 20 feet across by 15 feet wide. Since Jessie goes (or went) through water the easiest in the past the other horses lined up nose to tail as we were getting ready to cross. Jessie balked a bit and we had to work for about 5 minutes before she finally crossed. We then went around and tried to help the others. We played in the water for about 20 - 30 minutes until we thought everyone was comfortable with it and then continued our ride.

Like a little kid with new shoes Jessie and I went through every little mud puddle we came across. We worked our way out to a cinder block fence in a construction zone and did our bending into the fence exercise. She was much better as was the fence to work with.

Next stop was the big square. It was necessary to do a bit of cross country and there was, of course, water to cross. We came to a three foot, 6 inch deep rut only this time there was grass at the edge. I had been letting her drop her head to check out the water water, but now when she put her head down it was to sneak a bit of grass. When I encouraged her to "go", she replied, "Let me check this out again". After the third try (and the third bite of grass) I squeezed and said "Let's go!" She jumped the water, bounded up a little berm on the other side, and the gave a little buck just to let me know how disappointed she was to not have gotten to eat. We went back and crossed it again, then we loped a few circles. I think she lost a pound...