Our Podcast

Ranae and I have started a podcast. It is available on itunes. Just do a search for DUH podcast. We hope you will enjoy it. We hope you will participate. We hope we can keep it interesting. Here's Episode 2.

Episode 2

My Year-end Tribute To Jessie

Each year I try to compile some of the unused video and photos we've shot to put together a montage of our year. This year I put the video to a mashup of my favorite "Downunder Horsemanship" songs. (My audio editing still leaves much to be desired) Some of these clips where from our ill-fated movie, "The Method is Bogus", a sarcastic look at the training technique. Yes, we had a script and everything. Unfortunately, we were well into production when we learned that I cannot act, and the project was put on hold.

Other than that there was not a whole lot to choose from as 2011 was a year where I worked more on my photography than my videography. Looking back I didn't realize how many times I stood up on her. Jessie is such a good horse and continues to be a shining light in my life.

Happy New Year

California has been experiencing some very mild weather and we've been fortunate to ride not only Christmas Weekend, but New Year's Weekend as well.  The horses are doing very well.  We took some cones out to the Airpark field and worked on a number of exercises.  These cones were under ten bucks and they are easy to carry.  We can set them up in a flash and they let us do all kinds of exercises with them.   They act as our trees if we are bending.  At the trot we can two-track to weave in between them and at the lope they work well to help us keep a decent circle.

Here are a few photos from the rides:

Ranae loping at the Airpark field.

Ranae and Dusty practising their Steeplechase

Jessie the side-passing monster

Doing circles around our "tree"

Practising our lope-over skills
Hope you are getting to ride!

This is why I love California

We may not have an arena, but the week before Christmas it's warm enough to sneak out out on a Sunday morning for a ride.  The roads were quite and we headed out to the alfalfa field to warm up, over to the airpark field for some loping, then along the canal and back home.  The temps were in the low 60's and, while I had gloves, it was too warm for them.  The horses did well as we put them through a series of exercises.  Heck, it was even warm enough to give them a bath when we got home.

It it stays like this we may get to ride on Christmas Day!

Tumbleweeds work just fine

We had watched the Downunder Horsemanship with Tricky, the off-the-track thoroughbreed.  It was the episode where Clinton uses the trees to circle around.  The next day we were riding across from a farm and there was some plowing or harrowing going on.  The tractor had some big piece of equipment it was dragging behind it.  The horses weren't frightened, but they weren't paying attention to us either.  There are quite a few tumbleweeds in the field we were riding in, so we stated circling the horses around them like we had seen in the show.  It was sloppy at first, but it got better.  It was a nice day and we had all afternoon and we worked on it for about 15 minutes.. 

The horses finally got it and we went off and worked on our backups.  Also in that show, we had seen Clinton backup Tricky and the steps were light and quick.  Jessie will back up quickly, but not lightly.  Dusty is just the opposite.  We worked on that for about 10 minutes in one area, did some riding around, and then practiced it again in another area.  I think there was a little improvement in both horses. 

One thing I know for sure is that the horses hate it when we watch a show the night before a ride.  It means a lot more work for them.

A December Ride

Ranae went riding with her friend on Saturday because I had the final in my photojournalism class.  I got home around two and was on Jess a little before three.  It was cool, but clear as we headed out.  As soon as we hit the canal we started to trot.  She was a little distracted, but she gave me no problems.  We had none of the struggles we had when we first started going out alone.

I was listening to my ipod most of the way.  It's not the safest thing to do because it makes it harder to hear what's going on around us, but Jessie usually lets me know if something is up.  Well, about 1/2 mile down the canal we start loping.  She's at a comfortable pace and so I ask for a little collection.  My head is down because I'm looking for the give.  Then I move her left two-track stlye, and then right and again my head is still down.  She pops her head up and I can tell she is speeding up so I look up and there across the canal is a pit bull.  He leaves us alone, but it was a bit of a sight.  I turned the ipod back up as soon as we were a safe distance.

We walk and trot a bit farther.  I stop to pick up some stones because I know there are some other dogs up ahead.  Then, we start loping again.  I'm trying to change her speed with my seat and I guess I realxed a bit too much because she hit the brakes and it threw me to the front of the saddle.  We practiced this for awhile and then I looked down and noticed my pepper spray had come off the saddle.  We loped back around to where I thought it had come off and when we didn't find it, we loped back to where we were in our ride. 

We loped and trotted through the fields working on different things and then headed back.  We found the pepper spray a little farther away then I had initially thought.  When I stopped to pick it up I noticed how sweaty Jessie had gotten.  I guess we had done more loping than I thought.  I walked her most of the rest of the way home which was about a mile.

On Sunday Ranae and I rode in the other way and did some "drill team" circles in one of the fields.  It's a good exercise because Jessie wants to go faster than Dusty.  We took turns on the inside of the cricle and both horses did a fine job.  We had the camera and I took a little video of a plastic bag on the fence that we used to practice desensitizing . 

Then we rode past the Mexican's stable and there was a man lungeing his stallion.  It was a nice looking horse. 

Ranae's always telling me how Dusty jumps tumbleweeds when she's loping, so I got her to try and do it in a nice little soft patch.  Dusty knew the camera was on and refused to fully cooperate.

Headed down the canal.

The field next to the Airpark.

Not the best video quality.

Yeah, We've Been Riding

Dusty

Between work, school, and the days getting shorter it's been tough, but we've been getting our riding in on the weekends.  Except for last Saturday when it was raining, we generally go out for about a two hour ride on each weekend day. 

We've been moving faster and faster lately.  We used to spend about twenty minutes warming up before a trot.  Now it seems once we get to the first available spot to trot, we do.  And, in places we have previously been reluctant to lope because of a narrow road, dogs, or other stuff, we've been loping.  We've been doing a lot of loping side-by-side too.  It's great fun.  A new field got cleared last week and it had some really nice footing for loping.  We had watched the NWC dvd on "Cantering with Confidence" and took some of those principles out with us to see how the horses would do.

I know it's a philosophy that one should not ever stop learning, but the horses are doing great.  We are having a wonderful time on our rides.  Of course neither one of them is ready for a reining competition or anything, but for what we are using them for, it's darn near perfect.  I have been re-thinking some of my training goals and, until time becomes more available, if Jessie stays at this level, I'm okay with it.   She's a pretty darn good horse...