Flowers and Sunshine and Ponies, Oh My!

Spring is here! And I was finally home for a weekend and able to clock some time with my girls! Oh, and try out my new rope, aka the best horsemanship tool ever invented for ground work ;) It's the 32' Round Pen Lariat from Kalley Krickeberg's Horse Education Company. It can be used as a line for groundwork, or take the snap off and use it as a lariat. What really drew me to it was the simple fact that goatheads (those pokey demon weeds) can't get stuck in it unlike marine rope, and it coils up nicely which will be awesome when I'm ponying Gwen on trails, because the coil can just sit over my saddle horn and keep itself nice and tidy without me having to worry about it. It will also work great as a tie line when I take the horses camping :) 

I tried it out the first day I got it, and obviously had to teach myself how to rope ;) My pup was victim numero uno, and I had a total blast trying it out. The horses weren't as amused with it as I was at first, but they began to not care after a few swings and did really well. I took them both out to a small hill in our back pasture to get some energy out, and this rope was fantastic.. the coil takes the place of my carrot stick as a driving tool, and in my opinion is much more natural to use than wielding a stick around. The coils were easy to keep together, but if they did come undone, I only had 32' instead of 45' of rope to deal with, which is why I chose this one over Parelli's 45' line. I just simply don't need that much line, and I'm pretty sure I'd end up in trouble with that much slack around me! 

 

Gweny was not amused..

I hopped on Cheyenne, and she did great. We started off with fifteen strides of walk/fifteen strides of trot to help get her up and down transitions smoother, and to get her focusing on me. I threw in a little figure eight pattern here and there, and she settled down pretty quickly. Down transitions were terrible at first, and I ended up using way more rein than I'd like, but by the time we were done we had it primarily off of my seat aids. I was going to grab Gweny and practice ponying her, however my neighbor's bull got into our pasture and so I decided it was safer to just put Chey to bed and call it a day. But hey, short and sweet sessions have always been great for her, so I'm not complaining :) It was a successful day, and it felt so good to get back on a horse. 

Chey and our new 32' line

Gwen was so great online.. Typically it's a huge ordeal to get her to canter, and she just short of offered it to me! Granted she's been getting alfalfa/grass mix and has been feeling cooped up lately, but it all played in my favor, and we had a blast. Under saddle I have to take things very slowly with her, and we are still working at getting a willing trot and smoother up transitions. However when I saw her canter, my jaw dropped. Most of the time when she canters she can really get going, but this time she gave me a beautiful, collected lope, and it looked like one of those rocking horse canters you typically only dream of. My dressage instructor growing up had a thoroughbred mare who had such a canter, and one stride covered what felt like a quarter of the arena. I felt like I was watching that mare instead of Gwen, and it makes me that much more excited to get back on her! We have been focusing more on ground work, but holy cow I can't wait to ride that canter! I'm pretty sure I'm going to go find a long trail and just canter her everywhere.. that mare is going to have some great muscle by the end of this summer ;)

Gweny feeling good and being a Little Miss Sassy Pants

I'm hoping next weekend is in the upper 70's so I can bathe them and get their tails looking nice again. I love Spring time so much! Horses are feeling good, I'm feeling refreshed, and we have an entire year of trails, clinics, and good times ahead. What more could a girl as for?! I hope everyone else is having a great Spring with their ponies!

Hurry Up and Wait

I woke up today to three inches of snow magically gone, sunshine, and 55 degree weather! Early Spring miracle? I think so ;) Now that the ground is more solid, I decided to throw the round pen back up. 

Cheyenne has been on "winter break" for a few months, and so we started with some easy stuff today. Figure 8 on the 22' line and STM at the walk, trot, and... canter! What?! Yes! You heard me!

I've discovered I've been an avoid-a-holic when it comes to cantering with Chey, both in the saddle and apparently online as well. When I was starting her under saddle she had a very difficult time finding balance at the canter, so after a while I just stopped asking for it. Apparently that transferred to our ground work as well, and now that I've realized this, it's time to change it up! She is so great at mirroring me while playing STM, so we warmed up with walk, stop, back up, walk, trot transitions. Tracking left I asked for the canter with her between myself and the round pen. I cantered in my own stride, and tapped her with the carrot stick until we got a stride of canter, and then we stopped for a reward. About the third time she started to really get it down! Going to the right was a bit more sticky. It took longer for her to pick up the canter, and we had a lot more sour faces, but once she gave me a few good strides she got lots of lovins', and it was onto something she knew :)

Chey soaking it all up :)

I've learned with Chey I really need to pause more often between tasks, or even during them. When I say "game over", she needs to chill for more than five seconds. She is normally an RBE, and when I play with her my LBE side comes out, and I thought before that changing it up and constant go-go-go is what she needed. However I've noticed that gets her pretty amped up, doesn't give her a chance to think about what just happened, and she begins assuming more and more. I've gotten better about noticing when she needs to take a break and think, and when to keep moving, and it has made a huge difference in her confidence, and my personal attention to detail. 

Another thing I've been avoiding is carrot stick riding. Or anything to do with my carrot stick, really. Between the stick and the rope, I find there is too much in my hands and I'm more distracted with organizing myself and less effective with whatever my horse and I are doing. But it's something that is way over due, and so we worked on carrot stick riding combined with "don't make me pick up my reins". It went okay.. I was bareback, and the wind is pretty strong today. Combine those factors with my sloppyness with the reins and stick, and a hyper mare that likes to counter bend and randomly take off trotting because she's feeling her spring-time-spunkies, and you're gonna have a bad time ;) I ditched the carrot stick and we worked on transitions and quality of the back-up to cool her down, and to give her a chance to end on something familiar and on a good note. She was such a gem!

Checking in with me on our ride :)

What I learned today: I need to stop avoiding cantering, as well as carrot stick riding. Cheyenne's STM is worse tracking right, and I need to learn to be more efficient at juggling my tools. 

On a completely unrelated note, this is Lena, my mom's mare, looking too darn cute

Megan 1, Bee 0

Saturday and Sunday were great :) Unfortunately I'm writing this five days later, so the details are a bit fuzzy, but we definitely had some good moments. Saturday I warmed up Cheyenne which took a matter of minutes, and from the moment we left the dry lot for the play pen she was connected and responsive. How cool! Once I got on (this time under saddle) we once again did a million transitions, this time with some cantering peppered in. It's funny, growing up cantering and galloping were my two favorite speeds, but once Cheyenne became my main horse, we have really stuck to walk/trot. She had a lot of issues finding balance with a rider while cantering, and could never get the correct lead which didn't help, so we kind of just avoided it. It is definitely my fault for not helping her instead of just ignoring it, so now we are making some progress. She was a star as always, and we even went out of the pasture into the yard with her staying LB and acting like a partner! This was a huge deal since normally her threshold is the pasture fence, and anything beyond that calls for wide eyes and prey animal instincts to kick in. My five year old nephew even sat on her again while she grazed, and she acted like an old pro! I can't believe how far my little RBE has come. Most days you can't even tell she used to be a little reactive ball of nerves and RBE frenzy. I'm trying really hard to not hang onto the past and raise expectations for her instead of treating her like how she used to be, and days like that she makes it so easy :) I couldn't be more proud of that little lady!

My nephew and Cheyenne <3

Saddle fort!

My pretty lady :)

  

Straddling the pole for the first time!

Sunday it was finally Gwen's turn, and when she saw the halter finally coming in her direction she shoved her nose in it, ready to play! I got into LBI/LBE mode (which is pretty easy since that is my humanality) and off we went! Well, almost. We played with the F8 OL, sent her over a jump, played with COD, but all the while there was this huge bee buzzing around her legs, front left armpit, and hind end! It was the weirdest bee too, it flew in the fetal position, was huge, and super fuzzy. She tried really hard to be good, and she was really willing to play and only gave me semi-sour faces when asked for transitions, however she couldn't help but swish her tail at the bee, try to kick it, bite it, etc. After a few minutes I gave up and figured it was time for her spa treatment, and maybe I could drown that little dude at the same time ;)

Gweny watching the neighbors

I sprayed her off and he seemed to stay away while she was wet, but when it's nearing 90 degrees it doesn't take long for her to dry off. I had to chop her long mane I worked so hard to grow out, which really sucked, but had to be done. With me being there only once a month (and once winter hits and the mountain pass gets bad it will be less than that :[ ) it just turns into giant knots. Her mane and tail are so thick, if they aren't constantly braided, they're a huge mess. My scissors were going really dull however, so it wasn't the prettiest job, and she now looks like she rides in the 'short trailer', but whatever. It has to feel better than having big knots in your hair!

Perfect summer day 

The bee came back, and it was war. I tried spraying him with the hose but could never get him, so I grabbed a short fat stick. My goal was to smack him onto the ground then squish him with my boot. I hit him a few times, but he would only be on the ground for a split second than fly off again. I was at it for about 20 minutes (or felt that long, anyway) and just gave up and lounged in the shade while Gweny happily enjoyed some fresh grass.

When I finally put her to bed the bee was still around, and this time going from horse to horse looking for who knows what. Seriously, since when do bees obsess over horses? I let Gweny go and had some undemanding scratchy time with her and Cheyenne, and on my way out Chey was right behind me. As I was opening the gate, I turned around and saw it right next to her, so I smacked it with my had as hard as I could and finally squished the crap out of him!! Not today, bee!!! That's what you get for messing with my babies!!

I'm now back home and missing them all over again. I was really hoping to have them here by March, and now it looks like it might not be until next summer. For now I just have to enjoy our short but awesome weekends :)

No other happiness could be as great as this :)

242 miles later, I am enjoying another pony weekend :) The rope I had up for my round pen has mysteriously vanished, and the arena has turned into a bushy, goat head infested forest, so play area it was :) I grabbed Cheyenne and we warmed up with a little OL play.. she was LB, sluggish, and did what I asked, but she was by no means connected. Just happy to be next to her, I thought "I don't care" and just hopped on bridleless after she had been untouched for over a month. She still wasn't going anywhere fast, but she decided to pretend like she didn't know any of her leg or neck string cues, so it was back to ground work to get a good connection going and get that responsiveness back. It took about two minutes haha. We played the yo-yo game which quickly woke her up when I didn't allow her to fiddle with anything and everything as she thought about backing, and then we moved onto "a million transitions" on the circle game both ways. Tracking left she tried to convince me she didn't have the physical ability to walk, but once she finally offered consistent down transitions and maintained the walk for an entire lap we switched directions and tracking right they were near flawless :) We played STM in a rapid "walking for two strides.. NOW TROT!! Ooh now we're stopping and backing five strides! Now trot two! Now walk! Back up again!" and she was quickly matching me step for step. Her expression improved and her eyes unglazed.. she knew Momma was back!

I put her back to bed for a few hours during the heat of the day, and after I took her halter off she was a totally different horse than when I went in to halter her :) In the beginning she wanted to play, but she seemed indifferent to me and basically had an unconcerned, alpha mare attitude. However when putting her back, she was glued to my side with a happy, content expression, and as I walked back to the house she hung her head over the railing and watched me all the way back to the door. Aaah, the little things in life :)

I went back out around 6:00, this time with my 12' line as well, ready to ride. I really wanted to focus on responsiveness, and kind of go back and refine the basics. It's funny how gentle we try to be with these animals, and rightly so as they are very sensitive, but watching them interact together opens my eyes to how lenient I have been when I ask them to do something. I walked into the pasture, and as per usual I was instantly surrounded by four eager muzzles. Cheyenne put her barrel up next to me trying to claim my right side, and when Gwen tried to approach Chey charged her, sending her into the loafing shed. When Gwen came back, all Cheyenne had to do was pin her ears and push the air with her nose and Gweny went flying. How interesting! Phases in the backwards order. Straight to phase 4, and the next time it took what I would guess would be a phase two? Either way, it was extremely effective and what better way to study horse behavior than straight from the source.

We went into the play area and on the 22' line and after the previous session her responsiveness improved ten fold. Yo-yo was snappy and she was responding off of subtle cues. I drug the 100 gallon water trough into the play pen (after evicting the world's largest black widow.. I felt imaginary spiders all over my skin for the next 10 minutes) and turned it upside down for a more challenging jump for her. This mare totally blew my mind! I've only asked her to go over it a handful of times before, and not only is it taller than most of my other jumps but it is also solid and has some width to it. Her little 14.3hh bad self cleared it with room to spare and gorgeous form, I might add! The next Theodore O'Connor? You betcha!

I switched to the 12' line, tied it into reins, and jumped on bareback to play with a million transitions to get her focused and relaxed. This is seriously one of the greatest patterns of all time next to the figure eight for so many reasons. It didn't take long for her to start focusing on me, and once we got good downward transitions I knew she was focused. Being bareback on her slick summer coat (and Arabian like frame) it can be hard to stay centered on her, so I made it a point to figure it out tonight. I am fortunate enough to have pretty long legs, so I made a conscious effort to stretch my legs as far down her barrel as possible and keep my seat centered. It worked really well, and I also as a side bonus figured out if I round my back (I'm sure it doesn't look correct) when I ask for an upward transition into the trot, not only am I more secure, but it couples perfectly with squeezing by cheeks for her cue. I have never felt so fluid trotting on her bareback in my entire life! I have pretty solid bareback balance on most horses, but she is a particularly hard one to sit between a thin frame and her ADHD swervy movements, but tonight it really clicked and it felt incredible! Such a great break through!

We spent the rest of the night going over smaller jumps and reminding her that just because there is grass in the field doesn't mean it is an on-the-go buffet ;) She felt so amazing, I felt every happy side effect a person could possibly feel! Light, energetic, bubbly, enthusiastic, and totally in flow with my girl. I had a sudden urge to gallop through all of the pastures and jump everything in sight, however being bareback and her feeling like an equine slip n' slide, I figured I would take our trotting success as enough of a win and call it a night. I let her grub out as I set up the cones into a question box for tomorrow, and put her to bed. We spent some good quality time together, scratching her in all her favorite places (in her ears, on her belly button, and in between her teets). While I was in town I picked up a Himalayan natural salt block and was super excited to see how they liked it! Chey, as you can see below, basically molested it from every angle and seemed pretty excited about it :) They get vitamins and have a salt block, so she shouldn't have been lacking too much salt, but she acted like it was the best thing ever. Which, in the summer, it probably is. A well deserved reward after an incredible session :) I can't wait for tomorrow!

Grubbin'!

The smile of approval on her new treat!

Happy ladies waiting for their turn to play :)