Exciting July Weekend!

This past weekend – July 16-17 – had some wonderful Buckshot moments in them. I’ll give a few of the Saturday highlights and share a little bit more about Sunday. First, Buckshot’s rain rot has been cleared up! Hooray! I gave him a bath after our Saturday ride, with the medicated shampoo. When his hair is wet, it is silky smooth and I can feel every tiny bump on him, and his bumps have gone! It has taken two months of daily treatment, weekly shampoos and tool cleaning, but it has finally cleared up.

The other highlight to mention has to do with Buckshot’s new sense of exploration. As we did our walking warm up, we stopped in the center at one point. After a moment of standing still, he began to drift over to the open gate. I let him go, to see where he wanted to go. We walked out of the arena, he took a left turn and walked by the closest barn. As we neared the second barn, where he and I do his grooming, he turned in toward it. I could see the barn doorway was at my eye level, so I gently steered him away, and turned him around, to which he responded willingly. But I had to laugh and wonder, why did he want to ride back into the barn? We have never ridden into the barn, naturally. (Now that I think about it, at the barn we used to be at, and which he lived at for years, it wasn’t uncommon for riders to ride in the barn aisle. The aisle was very broad and very, very tall.) How funny that he wanted us to ride right into the barn!

Here is the exciting thing – we then went back to the arena and did a few more minutes of work, and then I decided we’d go exploring down the farm road! This is the road that leads to the farm’s other arena, off in a distant hay field. I haven’t been able to get Buckshot to go down the road by ourselves yet, either riding or in hand. But with his newfound confidence, I decided to try it. We headed to the road. I could sense a bit of uncertainty on Buckshot’s part – he wasn’t walking with quite as much purpose as when he was walking us to the barn. But he listened to me and we started down the road. At about one-third of the way down, he made a left turn and detoured toward a pasture gate. So without missing a beat, I led him in that direction and then turned him back toward the original arena. No argument, no discussion. If that was as far as he wanted to go, on that day, well, that was fine with me. Next weekend we’ll go farther, I’m sure. So back to the arena we went, and continued our work and our riding. We had a great ride, overall we rode for two-plus hours! Buckshot had good energy at the trot and the canter. So it was a great day for us! Good boy, Buckshot!

On Sunday we were scheduled to go to the reining clinic. When we first started going, many months ago, I would walk Buckshot by the already-in-position trailer, in route to the barn for grooming. He would snort or blow when he saw the trailer. After grooming him, he had a lot of energy. Excitement energy? Worried energy? I couldn’t tell. But I addressed it by taking him in the arena and doing a lot of little exercises in hand. Circles, backing, walking in squares, walking diagonal lines, anything and everything I could think of. And it definitely helped. It got his mind on what we were doing and off of the big trailer nearby. Then, and this was, again, in the early days of going to the trainer’s, as I walked him to the trailer, where the BOH was waiting to walk him into his partition, he would start trotting and partially prancing. He would get on the ramp and stop, and after about 1-2 minutes of just standing there (no snorting, no quivering, no resistance, just standing still), he would walk forward calmly and get into his partition.

It is so interesting to me, now that we have done this twelve to fifteen or more times, how he is different. Now, when we walk by the trailer, he doesn’t snort. He does make the tiniest blow sound, barely a normal blow sound. After we groom, we go out to the arena and he has just a bit more energy. We do our exercises and stay busy until it is time to load. He seems very calm. But as I walk him over to the loading ramp, and to the BOH, he still does the partial trotting, partial prancing thing. Then he walks onto the ramp, stops for appx 1 minute and walks in calmly. He is funny. But I really appreciate how easily he loads. Recently I saw some other horses being loaded and they were quite a handful! After that, I remembered how wonderfully easy Buckshot is to load and I so appreciate it about him! Good, good boy!

At the reining clinic, the trainer wanted all of the participants to go, one at a time, into his round pen and lope without reins. The idea was to help us feel the rhythm of our horse’s canter, without the diversion of reins, to help us with our seats. After watching the first rider do a great job at this, it was Buckshot and my turn. We walked through the many-chuted configuration of pens (Buckshot did fine going through these tight quarters), to the gate, which had a pipe frame overhead. Buckshot went a little quickly through the gate, and I bumped my head good on the pipe overhead. But, luckily, my helmet took the hit, not me. Hooray for helmets! (And as an aside, I do wear my helmet even when riding with the other western riders, none of whom wear helmets. I remember one day a few months ago, at the clinic, and I realized of all the riders there – about 8 or 10 – I was the only one wearing a helmet. For a moment, I felt conspicuous, but I shrugged it off. I am a committed helmet wearer, and plan to always be one.)

Anyway, back to the story. I’m going off on so many tangents, sorry.

Well, Buckshot and I were in what seemed like a teeny-tiny round pen. The trainer is very nice and accommodates Buckshot’s age and if needed, limited capabilities, and so he said to me to just do whatever I felt comfortable doing in the round pen. I wanted to lope, without reins! That’s what I wanted to do! But I’ve never successfully cantered Buckshot in a round pen for more than just a few strides, and sadly, we’ve never really loped, that beautiful, slow, controlled canter that these reining horses do so nicely. We just canter- strong canter. I know as I develop my skills at the canter, we may be able to do a more controlled canter, but it isn’t in my repertoire just yet. But maybe this was the day, I thought hopefully! I started Buckshot trotting and he did well, and then I kissed and tried to get the canter, and, well, it fizzled. I only got a few strides from him and they seemed to me to be so fast, and he seemed to be running right into the pen sides, and well, suffice it to say, we didn’t lope. But we did what we could, so I didn’t feel too badly about it.

We left the round pen and went to stand with the other horses and riders. A few minutes later, I guided Buckshot over to the arena (and this reining arena is very, very big), and decided to just practice our canter. We cantered quite well, one time we went all the way around it, with me keeping a good, decent seat and steering him! Wow! It was wonderful! We did a bit more cantering after a break, and I felt it was just such a great day for us. We did accomplish some good work, even if it wasn’t in the round pen.

Later in the class, we were at sort of a break, and I decided to take Buckshot back into the round pen and try the lope again. We wove our way through the pens and to the gate and again, Buckshot slid into the pen quickly. I walked him around the pen and could instantly feel his nervousness. He just didn’t seem comfortable in the round pen at all this time. I don’t understand why, but regardless of knowing why it bothered him, I rode him out and back to the arena. His nervousness immediately went away. Still, overall, it was a wonderful day and weekend for us – with some new adventures and great riding work done, and rain rot gone! I hope you had a wonderful weekend with your horses as well!

Training New and Old....

This past weekend was a good experience for my horse and I. We tried some new training techniques, and repeated some of our old training. And I have now reviewed my photos enough to gulp! Gulp! Share them with you (LOL)!

New Training in the Round Pen
At the suggestion of TR (excellent author of El Rancho Garza blog, link at the right), I started some new training in the round pen. I want Buckshot to learn to achieve certain gaits and stay in them until I change them, including the elusive slow lope. I began with work on the ground. I think that sometimes I underestimate Buckshot’s intelligence and don’t challenge him enough, allowing him to show me what he can learn and do. So I decided that I would develop new cues to the gaits (from the ground) and teach him. I decided to use one finger, pointing up, as the cue for walk, two fingers for slow trot, three for regular trot and four for lope. I began with verbal instruction: standing in front of Buckshot, I said “walk” and held up one finger, “easy trot” and held up two fingers, “trot” and held up three fingers, and “lope” and held up four fingers. I repeated this sequence several times to him. He seemed to understand (LOL). Then we began. Using my training stick (from a famous trainer program, ahem…) to slap the ground a few times, I got him to move away from me, to the rail, at the walk. I used both the word and the finger cue. After nearly a repetition, I said “whoa” and gave him our signal for whoa: my hand, palm down, moves toward the ground. He stopped and came into the center for reassurance. I gave him praise and a treat. We began again, and with a few slaps of the training stick, he moved up to a slow trot. After a repetition, I whoa’ed him and gave him praise and a treat. We began again, and I think he gave a slightly faster trot for the three finger cue. This all took no more than ten minutes. I ended with success at that point. He really did well, learning, I think, the first three cues in the first session. Then I took him to the barn to tack him up and go to the arena for our regular patterns/ exercises/ practice work. He did great. I did okay, but I was doing new training also (more on that below).

More Round Pen Training
On Sunday, we went back to the round pen and worked on our new training again. Since the day was hotter and muggier than Saturday, I took longer at the walk, to help him warm up. He seemed to know the finger cues easily, and when I said “whoa” he stopped and looked at me, but didn’t come into the center. After moving through easy trot and then trot, I tried to get the lope, using my voice “lope,” and slapping the ground to demonstrate energy and using the four finger cue. For several revolutions he just trotted faster. Then finally, he broke into a canter for a few strides. I let him come down to a “whoa” and gave him praise and a treat. We tried it in the other direction, but I couldn’t get him to lope. He just trotted quite fast. I finally decided it wouldn’t come today, and brought him down to a whoa and gave treats and praise. But he does know now that we are building to the lope. And he has been responsive and learned finger signals rather quickly. So I feel success at this new training effort!

We went on to the barn, and then the arena, and when doing the canter (which I called lope), we had some very good results- my seat stayed stuck to the saddle and the steering in circles wasn’t bad. I deliberately cut short our session because of the extreme humidity. The BO observed and complimented me later on what we had done, so (smile!) I felt great about it!

The Photos
Well, the photos above are of me on Buckshot. They are the better ones I have. Several other photos showed me some things I hadn’t realized about my riding, like how I sit perched up and forward, almost like I’m going to take flight over Buckshot’s neck! I had no idea how perched I was. I also could see my stirrups were too long. They hadn’t felt too long, but I could clearly see that I was raising my heels. And lastly, and most embarrassing, I could see how I pooche (is that a word?) out my midsection. Goodness! Where is my posture? Where is holding in the all-important core of my body? I had totally let it go to pot! How humiliating! And yet, how enlightening!

I also had photos of the reining trainer riding various horses and I compared my seat to his! His seat was immensely better than mine! His stirrups were better. His posture was better. So the photos, much to my chagrine, clearly pointed out some of my faults! With that in mind, I went to the barn Saturday determined to improve. “ I will sit back more,” “I will sit back more,” “ I will sit back more” has been my mantra. “Hold tummy in” has been my other mantra, and I am trying to do it at work, and in the car, and at home. As for the stirrups, they are the easiest to fix - I shortened them. While riding, I tried to work on my posture and my seat. It will certainly take me a while to retrain these areas, but they may very well help me ride better overall. Overall, while some of the pictures embarrassed me, they did show me a few things that are really good to see, unfortunately.

So both Buckshot and I began new training this weekend! I am going to be optimistic – That both of us can learn new tricks! (And speaking of tricks – how does he get out of his fly mask? I found his long nosed fly mask on the ground Saturday, with the Velcro straps still attached!! Does he open the straps, take it off and somehow attach them back together??? He’s like Houdini! With his fly masks! I think he must make a game of it! What a character!)