I think I mentioned that one of the things I wanted to fix with Trask is his trailer loading. He is normally fairly good about following you into the trailer, but oftentimes (especially at shows) he likes to put his front feet in and then refuse to budge. Super fun when you just want to go home.
I think self-loading is a really important skill for all horses so I wanted Trask to learn too. It's a lot safer and just a generally good life skill. I've been putting off teaching him this for no reason, though it's more difficult now that the days are so short and I can't exactly practice it in the dark.
Since he goes home soon, I sucked it up and finally put in the work on getting him to self load. I'm really proud of him for figuring it out, especially since half way through working with him I thought it was going to be a bust and I had failed.
Trask is a funny horse. He's very smart and not generally a spooky or reactive horse. But, when he doesn't understand or doesn't like something, he tends to freak out and his brain just stops working and he panics for no reason. He understands pressure, both from the halter and from tapping with a whip. He just can't process it when he's freaking out.
After trying to send him into the trailer multiple times, we kept getting hung up on putting the front feet in the trailer, but he wouldn't put his back feet in. Tapping his butt resulted in him kicking out at the whip, then rearing and rocketing out of the trailer backwards. Obviously not the smartest thing to do, and it resulted in him scraping a good amount of hair off his face when he reared and backed out at the same time (he's very talented).
I was sure we were done at that point. His poor head hurt (luckily didn't need stitches), he wasn't listening to me, just trying to run me over and rear. I was pretty sure I wasn't making any positive progress, so we changed tactics.
Trask is very food motivated. I use this to my advantage since he's a panicky horse, the treats help him refocus and have a positive association. I don't use treats with all horses and I don't use them all the time with Trask.
Now, I led him into the trailer. He stopped again with his front feet in and I tapped him on the shoulder with the whip. Eventually he stepped in the trailer and I gave him a handful of treats, lots of praise, and we just hung out for a while and got lots of pets.
Then I led him in again and repeated the treats and praise. One more time and he seemed to start to understand. The next time I went to lead him in and as he got his front feet in, I stopped and let himself get all the way in. Treats and repeat.
This was the end result:
We did it a few more times, sometimes with treats, sometimes without. He also learned to wait until I asked him to turn around. We will do this again to make sure it's cemented in his little pea brain, but he's a self loading horse now!
Showing posts with label Trask. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trask. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 26, 2017
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
Spooktacular
We actually had a not-so-bad show this last weekend! We even managed to canter in a test! I don't know what I was thinking because these past two weeks have been the worst weeks of vet school thus far but what better way to end an absolutely awful week of no sleep than with a horse show??
We signed up for a dressage suitability class, Intro B and Intro C. I briefly toyed with entering Training 1 since the flow of the test is better, especially in terms of canter. Having less than a whole 20-meter circle to pick up the canter and get back down to the trot makes it pretty tight. But, overall I feel like it was better to enter Intro because a horse that can't canter very well at Intro is kinda cute and baby-ish, but if they can't canter well at Training then you probably need to go back to Intro. That was my thinking anyways.
He warmed up beautifully - if only he could be that way in the show ring, he'd be so nice!
I was glad we entered the dressage suitability since it gave him an opportunity to get used to the arena (again, he's been here several times but they had all sorts of Halloween decorations out) and get him used to the judges booth with it's scary flashing lights and canopy. He was really good in there though we couldn't canter past the judges booth on the right lead, but the judge liked him so he got a blue ribbon! Probably the only blue I'm ever going to get on him, and it was just because he's cute lol.
Intro B did not go quite as well. We went immediately from Dressage Suitability to our test, so we stayed in the arena while his new "friends" left which made him very unhappy. Our test started out well, but we went to do our first circle at B and he went sideways and there was some rearing involved. I got him back on track and the rest of the test went well.
I was surprised to find we got a 66%! Even with rearing! I swear if this horse ever figures his stuff out, he's going to be amazing.
Intro C went much better. He was not as good in the warm-up arena and kept screaming back and forth with his buddies from the barn which was obnoxious. Luckily when we went back in the arena, we had a moment to school our circle in the middle of the arena and after a few antics he figured out that it was much easier to just do his circle.
This test went better than the last one, though there was still tension and he could not manage to pick up the right lead. Usually he's very good about getting it the second time after I bring him back down from his unsuccessful first try, but he just couldn't figure it out. Kind of a bummer that there are two marks for the canter, so that was a bummer, but he still pulled off a 62.5%
I was pretty happy with him! It was definitely an improvement over the last show, so I'll take it!
We signed up for a dressage suitability class, Intro B and Intro C. I briefly toyed with entering Training 1 since the flow of the test is better, especially in terms of canter. Having less than a whole 20-meter circle to pick up the canter and get back down to the trot makes it pretty tight. But, overall I feel like it was better to enter Intro because a horse that can't canter very well at Intro is kinda cute and baby-ish, but if they can't canter well at Training then you probably need to go back to Intro. That was my thinking anyways.
He warmed up beautifully - if only he could be that way in the show ring, he'd be so nice!
I was glad we entered the dressage suitability since it gave him an opportunity to get used to the arena (again, he's been here several times but they had all sorts of Halloween decorations out) and get him used to the judges booth with it's scary flashing lights and canopy. He was really good in there though we couldn't canter past the judges booth on the right lead, but the judge liked him so he got a blue ribbon! Probably the only blue I'm ever going to get on him, and it was just because he's cute lol.
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| He's pretty adorable |
Intro B did not go quite as well. We went immediately from Dressage Suitability to our test, so we stayed in the arena while his new "friends" left which made him very unhappy. Our test started out well, but we went to do our first circle at B and he went sideways and there was some rearing involved. I got him back on track and the rest of the test went well.
I was surprised to find we got a 66%! Even with rearing! I swear if this horse ever figures his stuff out, he's going to be amazing.
Intro C went much better. He was not as good in the warm-up arena and kept screaming back and forth with his buddies from the barn which was obnoxious. Luckily when we went back in the arena, we had a moment to school our circle in the middle of the arena and after a few antics he figured out that it was much easier to just do his circle.
This test went better than the last one, though there was still tension and he could not manage to pick up the right lead. Usually he's very good about getting it the second time after I bring him back down from his unsuccessful first try, but he just couldn't figure it out. Kind of a bummer that there are two marks for the canter, so that was a bummer, but he still pulled off a 62.5%
I was pretty happy with him! It was definitely an improvement over the last show, so I'll take it!
Sunday, October 1, 2017
Work in Progress
Trask is definitely still a work in progress but I definitely see a lot of improvement. It's easy to get caught up in all the things we still can't do or those occasional times that he misbehaves, but overall he really has gotten a ton better.
We went on a trail ride last weekend by ourselves and it was far above and beyond better than the last time we went by ourselves. He wanted to spook at stuff for sure, but he held it together and did as I asked without having a tantrum or me having to get off. We walked passed scary trashcans, the giant metal rooster, the enormous neighbor's bull, crossed the spooky yellow lines on the street, etc. We trotted a bunch and even cantered on the trails. The only time I had to get off is when we approached the pond. He was not having any of it and didn't even want to get within 20 feet, so I hopped off and led him up to the edge and he was fine.
It was really nice to feel that improvement! Unfortunately school has started and is already insane, especially with the start of our small animal surgery labs so I haven't been able to ride as much as I would like. Trask was feeling VERY fresh today and we had some impressive spooks and leaps due to a horse being ridden outside the arena, which Trask was sure was NOT ALLOWED.
We worked through it and had some good moments and by the end, I could tell he wanted to spook but he refrained. Instead he'd take a big, tense stride or two, but it was so much better than his little bolts (not really real bolts, because as soon as you half half him he stops). He'll get there someday, I think once he grows up a bit and gets more miles he's gonna be a great horse.
- He puts his head down to be bridled and I no longer have to pry his mouth open to get the bit in
- I can clip his face, including his muzzle now
- He no longer gets claustrophobic when I half-halt him
- He's getting much better at picking up his leads
- I can carry a whip and (most of the time) use it without him freaking out
We went on a trail ride last weekend by ourselves and it was far above and beyond better than the last time we went by ourselves. He wanted to spook at stuff for sure, but he held it together and did as I asked without having a tantrum or me having to get off. We walked passed scary trashcans, the giant metal rooster, the enormous neighbor's bull, crossed the spooky yellow lines on the street, etc. We trotted a bunch and even cantered on the trails. The only time I had to get off is when we approached the pond. He was not having any of it and didn't even want to get within 20 feet, so I hopped off and led him up to the edge and he was fine.
It was really nice to feel that improvement! Unfortunately school has started and is already insane, especially with the start of our small animal surgery labs so I haven't been able to ride as much as I would like. Trask was feeling VERY fresh today and we had some impressive spooks and leaps due to a horse being ridden outside the arena, which Trask was sure was NOT ALLOWED.
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| Little froggy friend |
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| Definitely not afraid of the whip *as he waves it around* |
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Little Jumping Bean
Trask and I went to another derby this past weekend. Spoiler alert... this one didn't go as well as the last one.
I jumped him the day before the show and he was AWESOME. A little bit strong maybe, but he didn't hesitate at any of the jumps. I brought out some new jumps - a little fake liverpool and a panel fence. And he wasn't bothered in the slightest. I bumped the jumps up to the highest we've done thus far and I don't think he even noticed.
I ended up hauling in the day of the show since we didn't do our dressage until 11:43am. We got there plenty early so I let Trask graze in the field for a bit since I wanted him to be relaxed and I also didn't want to repeat our trailer tying/halter breaking episode from a while back...
When I finally tacked him up and started warming up in the indoor arena... I knew it was going to go poorly for us. He was SO SPOOKY. About everything. The walls, the mirrors, the windows, the birds, the stall cleaners, etc. It was ridiculous. One thing I loved about this show was how absolutely nice everyone was. It was awesome!
Another person warming up noticed our difficulty with the mirrors (aka Trask stopping dead and staring at himself, then trying to run away from his reflection) and she offered to lead us up to the mirror which helped quite a bit, though Trask was still on edge. We did our best with the warm-up but I knew it wasn't going to happen for us.
We got to walk around the outdoor show arena briefly and Trask wasn't scared of anything surprisingly. They had some jumps and barrels stashed along the edge of the arena but he didn't care. Nor did he seem bothered by the large black water tanks or the hose reel outside the railing. We started our test and it wasn't too bad until we did our first circle. All of the sudden we were traveling sideways instead of in a nice circle, towards C. I managed to keep him kind of on track and then we went to canter. He didn't want to. With a very ugly transition, I finally got him into a canter but when we circled the same thing happened and he veered off towards C. We came back down to the trot and then the walk for our free walk across the diagonal and I was confident that this was something he could nail. Nope. He kept popping his head up to look around. We went for our next trot circle and the same thing happened, drifting off towards C. At this point I'd had enough and this was a schooling show anyways so I gave him a big kick with my outside leg, earning us a nice few steps of canter (ugh) and we finished our circle. We got to the corner almost to C and he tried to jump out of the arena. I ended up having to circle him in the corner so we could get our canter transition while he continued to try and jump out of the arena.
Finally got a very, very ugly canter transition, did our circle, trotted to X and did our (very crooked) salute. And walked out of the arena very disappointed.
I'm not quite sure what happened but it was definitely a big baby moment. That test was so incredibly ugly, I was so embarrassed. We went back to the indoor and schooled our canter transitions for a while, during which we had a discussion about spooking at things unnecessarily. Ended on a better note, but I was still pretty frustrated.
We had a bit to rest before jumping and I didn't even attempt to pick up my test. While walking to the jump field I had my bf grab it and then realized I didn't have my number since I had left it on my dressage bridle. The person manning the table quickly offered to make me a new one so I wouldn't have to walk all the way back to the trailer. Like I said, so nice!
I got on Trask up at the warm-up area for jumping. Of course as soon as I got on my eventing vest's zipper split which was fantastic. I tried to fix it while the bf held Trask but I couldn't get it. A very nice bystander came up and offered to help, so she ended up holding Trask while I held the edges of the vest together and my bf tried to get the zipper down. With all that teamwork we finally got it back to normal.
Trask warmed up well. They had a pretty large log for warm-up and while he initially refused it, after a good sniff he hopped right over. I felt good about our warm-up but I knew the course would be a struggle for us.
And it was a struggle right off the bat. The first fence, a stadium fence, was right next to fence 8 which was a small log next to the water. Since this was Intro level, the water was optional so you could go over the small log instead. Even though we had been trotting and cantering through the water a mere couple weeks ago, he thought the whole area - water, log and first fence was HORRIFYING. It took me forever and a half to get him to walk through the start flags. Again, pretty embarrassing. Finally walked him through the start flags, marched him up to the first jump so he could sniff it and then we came back around and trotted it. It was so nice that people clapped for us every time he jumped something that he initially refused. It made me feel a lot better that it seemed that people knew he was a baby and we were really struggling, so that was nice.
He popped over and we headed to the second fence, a large mossy log. He stopped at it, sniffed it, then popped over. We cantered up to the third fence, a moderate sized log. He seemed game so I let him keep his canter and he popped over it without hesitation. We crossed the bridge and cantered up the hill to fence four, another log. He jumped this one without hesitation too. We approached the fifth fence, a stadium fence but he would not pay attention and was spooking at the fences in the tree line so he almost missed the stadium fence but I made him do an awkward walk/trot hop over it, resulting in a pulled rail but no refusal. We trotted down the hill to a small coop, which he refused. At this point my legs were absolutely dead and I could barely even give him a squeeze so I just clucked at him and hoped he'd go over it. He did and we cantered to the next coop, this one he hesitated at but didn't refuse and hopped over.
Then we got to the dreaded fence 8. I knew I wasn't going to try and get him in the water, I just wanted to hop the tiny log then go to fence 9 (a stadium fence) and be done and go home. He refused the log so I thanked the timers and left.
I was pretty bummed since I knew before the show we'd likely get DQ'd for refusals, but my goal was 1) stay in the dressage arena (barely achieved), 2) no rearing (mostly achieved, there were a couple tiny rear's that my bf called "expressive turns"), 3) jump all the jumps even if we had a lot of refusals (fail) and 4) no falling off (yay I really did achieve this one!!)
Babies are so good at humbling you. I really thought we were ready for this show since he was schooling so well at home and we had schooled at this facility recently. Oh well. Packing up to go, the super nice lady parked next to me (her daughter had the CUTEST pony) complimented me on my patience on the jump course and wished me well in vet school (she noticed the sticker on my truck).
I love how nice everyone was at this event! It made it so much better even with a disappointing outcome.
Takeaways for me were - work more with the dressage whip so I can carry and use it at a show without him getting offended. Continue our work on canter transitions and getting him to pay attention to my outside leg. Work on getting him to jump unfamiliar jumps the first time without having to sniff them (thus earning us a refusal). Get him in more water!
I jumped him the day before the show and he was AWESOME. A little bit strong maybe, but he didn't hesitate at any of the jumps. I brought out some new jumps - a little fake liverpool and a panel fence. And he wasn't bothered in the slightest. I bumped the jumps up to the highest we've done thus far and I don't think he even noticed.
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| Biggest little fence so far! |
I ended up hauling in the day of the show since we didn't do our dressage until 11:43am. We got there plenty early so I let Trask graze in the field for a bit since I wanted him to be relaxed and I also didn't want to repeat our trailer tying/halter breaking episode from a while back...
When I finally tacked him up and started warming up in the indoor arena... I knew it was going to go poorly for us. He was SO SPOOKY. About everything. The walls, the mirrors, the windows, the birds, the stall cleaners, etc. It was ridiculous. One thing I loved about this show was how absolutely nice everyone was. It was awesome!
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| Attempting to eat plastic flowers |
Another person warming up noticed our difficulty with the mirrors (aka Trask stopping dead and staring at himself, then trying to run away from his reflection) and she offered to lead us up to the mirror which helped quite a bit, though Trask was still on edge. We did our best with the warm-up but I knew it wasn't going to happen for us.
We got to walk around the outdoor show arena briefly and Trask wasn't scared of anything surprisingly. They had some jumps and barrels stashed along the edge of the arena but he didn't care. Nor did he seem bothered by the large black water tanks or the hose reel outside the railing. We started our test and it wasn't too bad until we did our first circle. All of the sudden we were traveling sideways instead of in a nice circle, towards C. I managed to keep him kind of on track and then we went to canter. He didn't want to. With a very ugly transition, I finally got him into a canter but when we circled the same thing happened and he veered off towards C. We came back down to the trot and then the walk for our free walk across the diagonal and I was confident that this was something he could nail. Nope. He kept popping his head up to look around. We went for our next trot circle and the same thing happened, drifting off towards C. At this point I'd had enough and this was a schooling show anyways so I gave him a big kick with my outside leg, earning us a nice few steps of canter (ugh) and we finished our circle. We got to the corner almost to C and he tried to jump out of the arena. I ended up having to circle him in the corner so we could get our canter transition while he continued to try and jump out of the arena.
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| At least he looked nice part of the time? |
Finally got a very, very ugly canter transition, did our circle, trotted to X and did our (very crooked) salute. And walked out of the arena very disappointed.
I'm not quite sure what happened but it was definitely a big baby moment. That test was so incredibly ugly, I was so embarrassed. We went back to the indoor and schooled our canter transitions for a while, during which we had a discussion about spooking at things unnecessarily. Ended on a better note, but I was still pretty frustrated.
We had a bit to rest before jumping and I didn't even attempt to pick up my test. While walking to the jump field I had my bf grab it and then realized I didn't have my number since I had left it on my dressage bridle. The person manning the table quickly offered to make me a new one so I wouldn't have to walk all the way back to the trailer. Like I said, so nice!
I got on Trask up at the warm-up area for jumping. Of course as soon as I got on my eventing vest's zipper split which was fantastic. I tried to fix it while the bf held Trask but I couldn't get it. A very nice bystander came up and offered to help, so she ended up holding Trask while I held the edges of the vest together and my bf tried to get the zipper down. With all that teamwork we finally got it back to normal.
Trask warmed up well. They had a pretty large log for warm-up and while he initially refused it, after a good sniff he hopped right over. I felt good about our warm-up but I knew the course would be a struggle for us.
And it was a struggle right off the bat. The first fence, a stadium fence, was right next to fence 8 which was a small log next to the water. Since this was Intro level, the water was optional so you could go over the small log instead. Even though we had been trotting and cantering through the water a mere couple weeks ago, he thought the whole area - water, log and first fence was HORRIFYING. It took me forever and a half to get him to walk through the start flags. Again, pretty embarrassing. Finally walked him through the start flags, marched him up to the first jump so he could sniff it and then we came back around and trotted it. It was so nice that people clapped for us every time he jumped something that he initially refused. It made me feel a lot better that it seemed that people knew he was a baby and we were really struggling, so that was nice.
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| He's so cute though! |
He popped over and we headed to the second fence, a large mossy log. He stopped at it, sniffed it, then popped over. We cantered up to the third fence, a moderate sized log. He seemed game so I let him keep his canter and he popped over it without hesitation. We crossed the bridge and cantered up the hill to fence four, another log. He jumped this one without hesitation too. We approached the fifth fence, a stadium fence but he would not pay attention and was spooking at the fences in the tree line so he almost missed the stadium fence but I made him do an awkward walk/trot hop over it, resulting in a pulled rail but no refusal. We trotted down the hill to a small coop, which he refused. At this point my legs were absolutely dead and I could barely even give him a squeeze so I just clucked at him and hoped he'd go over it. He did and we cantered to the next coop, this one he hesitated at but didn't refuse and hopped over.
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| Generously clearing the tiny coop - I chopped my face off cause I looked ridiculous |
Then we got to the dreaded fence 8. I knew I wasn't going to try and get him in the water, I just wanted to hop the tiny log then go to fence 9 (a stadium fence) and be done and go home. He refused the log so I thanked the timers and left.
I was pretty bummed since I knew before the show we'd likely get DQ'd for refusals, but my goal was 1) stay in the dressage arena (barely achieved), 2) no rearing (mostly achieved, there were a couple tiny rear's that my bf called "expressive turns"), 3) jump all the jumps even if we had a lot of refusals (fail) and 4) no falling off (yay I really did achieve this one!!)
Babies are so good at humbling you. I really thought we were ready for this show since he was schooling so well at home and we had schooled at this facility recently. Oh well. Packing up to go, the super nice lady parked next to me (her daughter had the CUTEST pony) complimented me on my patience on the jump course and wished me well in vet school (she noticed the sticker on my truck).
I love how nice everyone was at this event! It made it so much better even with a disappointing outcome.
Takeaways for me were - work more with the dressage whip so I can carry and use it at a show without him getting offended. Continue our work on canter transitions and getting him to pay attention to my outside leg. Work on getting him to jump unfamiliar jumps the first time without having to sniff them (thus earning us a refusal). Get him in more water!
Saturday, September 2, 2017
Young Grasshopper
Trask and I completed our first eventing derby-style show! He is officially a little grasshopper now.
A facility that I used to ride at a lot growing up has now started to offer eventing derbies. I think they had one or two before this show, but it's a hard thing to find in our area and sounded low key so I thought I'd enter Trask. We haven't done a whole lot of jumping so I entered him in the teeny-tiniest division, Grasshopper.
We had two really great rides before the show. I've been trying to ride him outside more because he's perfect in the arena, but can get a little fresh and switch his listening off a bit when we're outside. The first few times I ever rode him outside I was pretty sure we had no brakes to speak of... But he's getting much better!
I think a big helper was getting better control of his shoulders. When he has his little baby meltdowns, he just runs his outside shoulder right through my aids, which is very bad if you are, for instance, on a trail ride along the edge of a cliff... Anyways, he's doing much better now that we have been warming up on a "square" where I ask him to bring his shoulders around 90 degrees in the corners. I have much better control over his shoulders now and he's not blowing through my leg as much.
We jumped our first little course right before the show. Mostly we've just been jumping one or two jumps at a time, but we strung together a tiny course of five fences. He was awesome! He sometimes rushes towards the barn, but when we were jumping he loped along without rushing, he did come in a little crooked at times, but never tried to run out and jumped very willingly. I was super happy with him!
Friday I hauled him down for the show. The one thing I didn't quite like about this show was that it was twice the cost of the usual eventing derbies we enter (one division + an overnight stall). I might not attend in the future because of this factor but we'll see. I got him a stall because they charged a haul-in fee and the stall was only $10 more than the haul-in fee. Plus, I figured it would be good for him to be ridden around the grounds beforehand since he can be a little nervous in new environments.
He was super good and we rode in both the dressage arena and outside around the course, we were allowed to jump the warm-up jumps and I got to see how the course was layed out. The course is just a stadium course of 10 jumps, then 8 cross country jumps laid out in a circle. So nothing too exciting or challenging. He absolutely loved jumping the tiny logs they had for the grasshopper division and I even jumped him over the inviting BN log they had out. We spent a majority of the time desensitizing him to the large canopy and strands of plastic flags. It was really breezy so everything was flapping in a terrifying, horse-eating way. Eventually he got used to it and I was very happy when I put him away for the night.
Of course once I looked over the course map I worried a bunch all night. The last jump of the stadium was marked as the hay bales... he's never jumped hay bales and they're pretty big for a grasshopper division!
The next day he warmed up pretty tense and worried for dressage. Of course there was a giant tractor moving the manure pile and he could see it from the warm-up arena. It was LOUD and he was distracted by it. But once he relaxed I was really happy with how he felt. My mom and bf came to watch which was fun.
We entered the arena for Intro test B. We trotted and trotted and trotted around the outside of the dressage ring for what felt like forever. We sniffed the judge's table. And finally we just walked and walked for a while until the judge FINALLY rang the bell. We did our first halt and saluted the judge. And then stood there... and stood there.... and she never nodded back so I just went on, hoping I hadn't missed something. They had given us enough time outside the ring that he was fine with the judges booth and there was no spooking like our first show. He did his first circle, then came walking around the corner facing the stands, where my mother, in her neon orange shirt, was standing at the rail trying to video our round, and halted dead, staring at her. He started backing up and she realized what was happening and sat down. As soon as she did, we were able to continue on, I was cracking up. He is such dumb-dumb sometimes!
Overall, the test was really good. Our free walk was fantastic, he was relaxed and attentive. He wasn't 100% soft and steady in the bridle the whole time, but I was very happy with the test and it was a huge improvement over our first show.
Guess what we scored?? A whopping 80% for a second place. I couldn't help but laugh at how extraordinarily off the judging was. We got mostly 8's and a few 9's. I have no idea who was judging, but she definitely was not a dressage judge. It just made me giggle... especially the walk movement where he halted and backed up, we scored a 7 with the comment "silly horse!" I know it's a schooling show and they want to make it a good experience for the green horses, but it just made me laugh.
We had a whole three and a half hours until jumping so I put Trask away and napped in the truck. I walked the course briefly and saw with relief that the hay bale jump that I was so worried about had been parted so all we had to do was go between the bales. That made me feel a lot better. All the stadium jumps were just poles on the ground with flower boxes. I wasn't worried about the flowers because all the jumps that we've been practicing with at home have flowers and he's never cared about them.
Warming up was very hectic and Trask was pretty worried and kind of freaking out a little. "We're in a field! With other horses! OMG the other horses are cantering! In a field! OMG that horse is cantering by itself all the way over there, what's wrong?!?!?!" <- pretty much his internal monologue the entire time. He absolutely could not handle the warm up stadium jumps and I kept losing his shoulder to the left and he'd refuse the jump, then get extremely upset when I tapped his shoulder with my crop. Finally I ditched my crop as it was just making the problem worse and once we finally got a nice straight jump we just went for a walk. I tried to stand and watch the riders go before us, but he started trying to rear (sigh...) so we just walked.
Once we started the course though, the fun really began. He immediately refused the first fence... twice. Luckily the time didn't start until we did the first jump, so the refusals didn't count. We finally made it over the first jump, but then refused the second jump. When he finally jumped it, he leaped so big I hit the brim of my helmet on his neck. It was wonderful. The third jump was much the same but finally by the fourth jump he was in the groove of things and we were able to just trot around the course. Finally we got through the hay bales and picked up a canter for the cross country part. He was absolutely perfect for this part. I think he really enjoyed himself! Internal monologue was more like "This is awesome! I'm such a champion, look at me go! I'm jumping things! Whoooo!"
I was very happy with him the entire time we were cantering over the logs. He never rushed (there were some scary bolting horses out there) and he never hesitated over the jumps. Even when we got to the very last one... it was decorated with flowers. I was like great, he's gonna refuse the very last fence. He just pricked his ears up and wiggled a little bit but didn't hesitate and popped over it. I was so proud! He easily came back down to a walk too. Good baby!
I had to leave before the final placing was done, but I was pretty sure we were out of the ribbons because none of the other horses had refusals.
I ended up getting second out of six horses! I have no idea how. The scoring makes zero sense to me, but I love ribbons so I'll take it. I picked up my ribbon the next day but I was kinda bummed since they also had separate ribbons for a TB/half TB (Trask is half TB) high point in each division, that we actually won first place in our division for the weekend. But she never gave me that ribbon, nor did we get our prize to go with the ribbon we did get (both first and second place were supposed to get prizes in addition to the ribbons). When I'm paying that much for a schooling show I want all the ribbons/prizes I can get! So I was bummed about that.
For a one-person run show, it did go fairly well. I absolutely know how hard it is to run a show from experience so she gets all my kudos for doing such a good job by herself, but hopefully she can get a few things smoothed out before I come back, namely an actual dressage judge, someone to run the office while she does the timing for jumping, appropriate ribbons, better scoring for the jumping phase, etc. But I had a really fun time and it was really good for Trask!
A facility that I used to ride at a lot growing up has now started to offer eventing derbies. I think they had one or two before this show, but it's a hard thing to find in our area and sounded low key so I thought I'd enter Trask. We haven't done a whole lot of jumping so I entered him in the teeny-tiniest division, Grasshopper.
We had two really great rides before the show. I've been trying to ride him outside more because he's perfect in the arena, but can get a little fresh and switch his listening off a bit when we're outside. The first few times I ever rode him outside I was pretty sure we had no brakes to speak of... But he's getting much better!
I think a big helper was getting better control of his shoulders. When he has his little baby meltdowns, he just runs his outside shoulder right through my aids, which is very bad if you are, for instance, on a trail ride along the edge of a cliff... Anyways, he's doing much better now that we have been warming up on a "square" where I ask him to bring his shoulders around 90 degrees in the corners. I have much better control over his shoulders now and he's not blowing through my leg as much.
We jumped our first little course right before the show. Mostly we've just been jumping one or two jumps at a time, but we strung together a tiny course of five fences. He was awesome! He sometimes rushes towards the barn, but when we were jumping he loped along without rushing, he did come in a little crooked at times, but never tried to run out and jumped very willingly. I was super happy with him!
Friday I hauled him down for the show. The one thing I didn't quite like about this show was that it was twice the cost of the usual eventing derbies we enter (one division + an overnight stall). I might not attend in the future because of this factor but we'll see. I got him a stall because they charged a haul-in fee and the stall was only $10 more than the haul-in fee. Plus, I figured it would be good for him to be ridden around the grounds beforehand since he can be a little nervous in new environments.
He was super good and we rode in both the dressage arena and outside around the course, we were allowed to jump the warm-up jumps and I got to see how the course was layed out. The course is just a stadium course of 10 jumps, then 8 cross country jumps laid out in a circle. So nothing too exciting or challenging. He absolutely loved jumping the tiny logs they had for the grasshopper division and I even jumped him over the inviting BN log they had out. We spent a majority of the time desensitizing him to the large canopy and strands of plastic flags. It was really breezy so everything was flapping in a terrifying, horse-eating way. Eventually he got used to it and I was very happy when I put him away for the night.
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| All the horse eating things |
Of course once I looked over the course map I worried a bunch all night. The last jump of the stadium was marked as the hay bales... he's never jumped hay bales and they're pretty big for a grasshopper division!
The next day he warmed up pretty tense and worried for dressage. Of course there was a giant tractor moving the manure pile and he could see it from the warm-up arena. It was LOUD and he was distracted by it. But once he relaxed I was really happy with how he felt. My mom and bf came to watch which was fun.
We entered the arena for Intro test B. We trotted and trotted and trotted around the outside of the dressage ring for what felt like forever. We sniffed the judge's table. And finally we just walked and walked for a while until the judge FINALLY rang the bell. We did our first halt and saluted the judge. And then stood there... and stood there.... and she never nodded back so I just went on, hoping I hadn't missed something. They had given us enough time outside the ring that he was fine with the judges booth and there was no spooking like our first show. He did his first circle, then came walking around the corner facing the stands, where my mother, in her neon orange shirt, was standing at the rail trying to video our round, and halted dead, staring at her. He started backing up and she realized what was happening and sat down. As soon as she did, we were able to continue on, I was cracking up. He is such dumb-dumb sometimes!
Overall, the test was really good. Our free walk was fantastic, he was relaxed and attentive. He wasn't 100% soft and steady in the bridle the whole time, but I was very happy with the test and it was a huge improvement over our first show.
Guess what we scored?? A whopping 80% for a second place. I couldn't help but laugh at how extraordinarily off the judging was. We got mostly 8's and a few 9's. I have no idea who was judging, but she definitely was not a dressage judge. It just made me giggle... especially the walk movement where he halted and backed up, we scored a 7 with the comment "silly horse!" I know it's a schooling show and they want to make it a good experience for the green horses, but it just made me laugh.
We had a whole three and a half hours until jumping so I put Trask away and napped in the truck. I walked the course briefly and saw with relief that the hay bale jump that I was so worried about had been parted so all we had to do was go between the bales. That made me feel a lot better. All the stadium jumps were just poles on the ground with flower boxes. I wasn't worried about the flowers because all the jumps that we've been practicing with at home have flowers and he's never cared about them.
Warming up was very hectic and Trask was pretty worried and kind of freaking out a little. "We're in a field! With other horses! OMG the other horses are cantering! In a field! OMG that horse is cantering by itself all the way over there, what's wrong?!?!?!" <- pretty much his internal monologue the entire time. He absolutely could not handle the warm up stadium jumps and I kept losing his shoulder to the left and he'd refuse the jump, then get extremely upset when I tapped his shoulder with my crop. Finally I ditched my crop as it was just making the problem worse and once we finally got a nice straight jump we just went for a walk. I tried to stand and watch the riders go before us, but he started trying to rear (sigh...) so we just walked.
Once we started the course though, the fun really began. He immediately refused the first fence... twice. Luckily the time didn't start until we did the first jump, so the refusals didn't count. We finally made it over the first jump, but then refused the second jump. When he finally jumped it, he leaped so big I hit the brim of my helmet on his neck. It was wonderful. The third jump was much the same but finally by the fourth jump he was in the groove of things and we were able to just trot around the course. Finally we got through the hay bales and picked up a canter for the cross country part. He was absolutely perfect for this part. I think he really enjoyed himself! Internal monologue was more like "This is awesome! I'm such a champion, look at me go! I'm jumping things! Whoooo!"
I was very happy with him the entire time we were cantering over the logs. He never rushed (there were some scary bolting horses out there) and he never hesitated over the jumps. Even when we got to the very last one... it was decorated with flowers. I was like great, he's gonna refuse the very last fence. He just pricked his ears up and wiggled a little bit but didn't hesitate and popped over it. I was so proud! He easily came back down to a walk too. Good baby!
I had to leave before the final placing was done, but I was pretty sure we were out of the ribbons because none of the other horses had refusals.
I ended up getting second out of six horses! I have no idea how. The scoring makes zero sense to me, but I love ribbons so I'll take it. I picked up my ribbon the next day but I was kinda bummed since they also had separate ribbons for a TB/half TB (Trask is half TB) high point in each division, that we actually won first place in our division for the weekend. But she never gave me that ribbon, nor did we get our prize to go with the ribbon we did get (both first and second place were supposed to get prizes in addition to the ribbons). When I'm paying that much for a schooling show I want all the ribbons/prizes I can get! So I was bummed about that.
For a one-person run show, it did go fairly well. I absolutely know how hard it is to run a show from experience so she gets all my kudos for doing such a good job by herself, but hopefully she can get a few things smoothed out before I come back, namely an actual dressage judge, someone to run the office while she does the timing for jumping, appropriate ribbons, better scoring for the jumping phase, etc. But I had a really fun time and it was really good for Trask!
Thursday, August 24, 2017
Mini Catch-Up
Summer has been absolutely flying past me and I can't believe it's almost over! Trask and I have been plugging along not doing too much interesting. Mainly of note is that we've gone on two trail rides since the first one I posted about and they were a much better experience!
The first one was on the trails just off the barn property. I am SO excited I don't have to haul to the trails anymore if I don't feel like it! We went with another boarder who offered to show me where to go since I wasn't sure and didn't want to trespass through peoples' back yards to get there. I cannot wait to explore this trail system more!
Trask was on his best behavior. He followed politely the entire time, at the end he even just trailed along further behind like he had no worries in the world about getting left behind (definitely not the case last time we went for a trail ride!). He was a little bit excited at first, especially when we passed the neighbor's horses in turnout, but there were absolutely no shenanigans. It was a relief!
The second trail ride I decided to take him to Willamette Mission. It's one of my favorite places to ride and I haven't been to it in a really, really long time. I'm pretty sure the last time might have been with Misty? Anywho, we made the trip out by ourselves. I was kinda nervous since this was our first ride out by ourselves in a completely new (to him) environment. I checked the calendar first to make sure it was going to be a quiet Tuesday since one time we showed up and there was a trail race going on and another time there was this weird kids camp that for some reason involved throwing hatchets at trees??
Overall, it was not a bad ride. Not great either. I never felt like I was going to die like on the first trail ride, but I was kinda tempted to just leave Trask in the wilderness at one point. His go-to move when he doesn't want to do something - whether it's standing still or going forward - is to rear. Not very fun in my book.
It started at the beginning of the trail where there are some big logs sitting alongside the trail. Very terrifying. Much rearing and trying to run away. As soon as I got off and lead him up to it, they were fine. We walked around the logs a couple times with me on him, making him touch it and stuff until he was no longer worried about it and then we were off. The second scary part was when we got to the river and he couldn't POSSIBLY walk along the trail that led close to the small cliff that led down towards the edge of the river. Spinning and rearing ensued. I got off, it was fine, no big deal. Got back on, walked back and forth a few times and it was no longer scary.
We were able to trot through the forest and he didn't seem too sketchy. I didn't want to do too much trotting or cantering because I was afraid he'd turn me into a lawn dart. But he managed a nice 10 minutes of trotting or so.
Third time was when we got to the big agricultural field. This is a weird state park that wraps around a lot of (I believe privately-owned) agricultural land that is actively being farmed. There was a piece of white plastic, like the kind used to wrap big stacks of hay, that was too scary to walk past so I had to get off yet again.
I was pleased with how he handled the tractor though. I was hoping they'd be done with the harvest and it looked like they were just finishing up and Trask kept a close eye on the tractor going around the field but there was no spooking at all. The fourth scary object was a hill. Yes, a physical hill. The trail is single track up this steep, but short hill and you can't see the other side. Apparently this was unacceptable and we spent some time arguing (and backing into trees) before I got off and led him up and back down in either direction over the hill. I was a tiny bit ticked at him by this point.
We managed to ride over the hill and spent some time picking blackberries on the other side. It took Trask a little while to figure out how to eat them since he kept smooshing them with his nose and then all that was left was some juice, but he eventually figured out that they were pretty tasty.
We got back to the river and I was disappointed to find that a couple who had stopped at the open-use day site, where people boating down the river can stop and eat at the picnic table for a little bit, were still there over an hour after we had previously passed them there. They had their stuff spread EVERYWHERE blocking access to the river, completely taking over the site, which I thought was a tad rude since other people wouldn't be able to share it. It also meant that I couldn't get Trask in the water which is one of my favorite parts about this park is the access to the fairly still water that runs into the river. They did offer to move their boat (slightly huffily) but I didn't want to scare Trask with the magically teleporting canoe that I'm sure he would see, so we headed back to the trailer with no swimming.
And of course, we had to end the trail ride with a spook at the exact same log that he first spooked at when we started out. Oh and when I untacked him and went to wash him off and let him get a drink from the water tank he spooked at the water tank too. **Face palm**
So that is the story of the poor baby horse and all the scary things!
To counter that story though, he has been a complete superstar in the arena! He is picking up things so quickly. Our canter has improved a ton since I got him, we almost always get the correct lead, he doesn't panic if he picks up the wrong lead, I no longer have to counter-flex him a tiny bit to get the right lead, and it's just developing into a better canter overall. Our transitions are improving, we're schooling a lot of the training level elements and they're getting easier and easier for him. I'm really having fun with him!
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| Riding outside at the barn |
The first one was on the trails just off the barn property. I am SO excited I don't have to haul to the trails anymore if I don't feel like it! We went with another boarder who offered to show me where to go since I wasn't sure and didn't want to trespass through peoples' back yards to get there. I cannot wait to explore this trail system more!
Trask was on his best behavior. He followed politely the entire time, at the end he even just trailed along further behind like he had no worries in the world about getting left behind (definitely not the case last time we went for a trail ride!). He was a little bit excited at first, especially when we passed the neighbor's horses in turnout, but there were absolutely no shenanigans. It was a relief!
The second trail ride I decided to take him to Willamette Mission. It's one of my favorite places to ride and I haven't been to it in a really, really long time. I'm pretty sure the last time might have been with Misty? Anywho, we made the trip out by ourselves. I was kinda nervous since this was our first ride out by ourselves in a completely new (to him) environment. I checked the calendar first to make sure it was going to be a quiet Tuesday since one time we showed up and there was a trail race going on and another time there was this weird kids camp that for some reason involved throwing hatchets at trees??
Overall, it was not a bad ride. Not great either. I never felt like I was going to die like on the first trail ride, but I was kinda tempted to just leave Trask in the wilderness at one point. His go-to move when he doesn't want to do something - whether it's standing still or going forward - is to rear. Not very fun in my book.
It started at the beginning of the trail where there are some big logs sitting alongside the trail. Very terrifying. Much rearing and trying to run away. As soon as I got off and lead him up to it, they were fine. We walked around the logs a couple times with me on him, making him touch it and stuff until he was no longer worried about it and then we were off. The second scary part was when we got to the river and he couldn't POSSIBLY walk along the trail that led close to the small cliff that led down towards the edge of the river. Spinning and rearing ensued. I got off, it was fine, no big deal. Got back on, walked back and forth a few times and it was no longer scary.
We were able to trot through the forest and he didn't seem too sketchy. I didn't want to do too much trotting or cantering because I was afraid he'd turn me into a lawn dart. But he managed a nice 10 minutes of trotting or so.
Third time was when we got to the big agricultural field. This is a weird state park that wraps around a lot of (I believe privately-owned) agricultural land that is actively being farmed. There was a piece of white plastic, like the kind used to wrap big stacks of hay, that was too scary to walk past so I had to get off yet again.
I was pleased with how he handled the tractor though. I was hoping they'd be done with the harvest and it looked like they were just finishing up and Trask kept a close eye on the tractor going around the field but there was no spooking at all. The fourth scary object was a hill. Yes, a physical hill. The trail is single track up this steep, but short hill and you can't see the other side. Apparently this was unacceptable and we spent some time arguing (and backing into trees) before I got off and led him up and back down in either direction over the hill. I was a tiny bit ticked at him by this point.
We managed to ride over the hill and spent some time picking blackberries on the other side. It took Trask a little while to figure out how to eat them since he kept smooshing them with his nose and then all that was left was some juice, but he eventually figured out that they were pretty tasty.
We got back to the river and I was disappointed to find that a couple who had stopped at the open-use day site, where people boating down the river can stop and eat at the picnic table for a little bit, were still there over an hour after we had previously passed them there. They had their stuff spread EVERYWHERE blocking access to the river, completely taking over the site, which I thought was a tad rude since other people wouldn't be able to share it. It also meant that I couldn't get Trask in the water which is one of my favorite parts about this park is the access to the fairly still water that runs into the river. They did offer to move their boat (slightly huffily) but I didn't want to scare Trask with the magically teleporting canoe that I'm sure he would see, so we headed back to the trailer with no swimming.
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| "Plz send help" |
And of course, we had to end the trail ride with a spook at the exact same log that he first spooked at when we started out. Oh and when I untacked him and went to wash him off and let him get a drink from the water tank he spooked at the water tank too. **Face palm**
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| Trying out jump tack the other day |
So that is the story of the poor baby horse and all the scary things!
To counter that story though, he has been a complete superstar in the arena! He is picking up things so quickly. Our canter has improved a ton since I got him, we almost always get the correct lead, he doesn't panic if he picks up the wrong lead, I no longer have to counter-flex him a tiny bit to get the right lead, and it's just developing into a better canter overall. Our transitions are improving, we're schooling a lot of the training level elements and they're getting easier and easier for him. I'm really having fun with him!
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| So handsome |
Monday, August 7, 2017
Picture Day
I can't even remember which day it was now with how crazy life has been but a week or two ago, KP and I took Trask and KP's filly to get some pictures done just for fun.
It was pretty hectic - KP had to work night shift and we hauled Trask, momma horse, and baby all together, meaning that I had to drive separate so KP could take my car to work while I took all the horses home.
Trask's one fault is that he's a little bit herd-bound. Of course he fell in love with momma and baby during the trailer ride and as soon as we separated them he got very freaked out. After they were done taking the baby's pictures, it was my turn to try to wrangle Trask. He was not very in to standing still... at all. Finally we ditched all the on the ground photos and I lunged him before getting on. KP wanted me to ride outside but I was pretty sure no good pictures were going to be had since the mom and baby were turned outside and all he wanted to do was look at them with his head in the air like a llama.
Once I was on though, he was very good. I think we had one of the better rides to date. He was pretty hyper still, but it made his canter so uphill and wonderful. We did have a little bit of bucking, but he's not very good at it so it was more like leaping across the arena. Overall, I was super happy with him, he listened to my aids and acted almost like a grown-up horse! (Ignore me, I look absolutely awful, I really just need someone to yell at me all the time to put my shoulders back and look up!)
Hopefully I can have this same photographer out to do pictures of Jetta, Maisie and I this fall, I really like how she did them!
The pictures turned out lovely, these will eventually be used for his sale ad. Most of them are unedited, so if we end up using them I'll probably edit them, but the photographer did edit a couple, which turned out stunning (namely this black background one!):
It was pretty hectic - KP had to work night shift and we hauled Trask, momma horse, and baby all together, meaning that I had to drive separate so KP could take my car to work while I took all the horses home.
Trask's one fault is that he's a little bit herd-bound. Of course he fell in love with momma and baby during the trailer ride and as soon as we separated them he got very freaked out. After they were done taking the baby's pictures, it was my turn to try to wrangle Trask. He was not very in to standing still... at all. Finally we ditched all the on the ground photos and I lunged him before getting on. KP wanted me to ride outside but I was pretty sure no good pictures were going to be had since the mom and baby were turned outside and all he wanted to do was look at them with his head in the air like a llama.
Once I was on though, he was very good. I think we had one of the better rides to date. He was pretty hyper still, but it made his canter so uphill and wonderful. We did have a little bit of bucking, but he's not very good at it so it was more like leaping across the arena. Overall, I was super happy with him, he listened to my aids and acted almost like a grown-up horse! (Ignore me, I look absolutely awful, I really just need someone to yell at me all the time to put my shoulders back and look up!)
Hopefully I can have this same photographer out to do pictures of Jetta, Maisie and I this fall, I really like how she did them!
The pictures turned out lovely, these will eventually be used for his sale ad. Most of them are unedited, so if we end up using them I'll probably edit them, but the photographer did edit a couple, which turned out stunning (namely this black background one!):
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| My favorite |
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| My second favorite |
Thursday, July 20, 2017
Trail Ride Train Wreck
So many interesting (fun?) things to write about but I've been so crazy busy I haven't gotten around to it!
First up, last Sunday, Trask and I had our first trail ride together. He has been on trails before with the trainer, JM, who started him almost a year ago, but I don't think he has since then. Because of that I wanted to go with people for our first time and KP said she'd go with me. She just got her horse, Rogue (Trask's half brother) gelded so he is out of commission for a bit, so she needed a horse to ride. So she invited trainer JM to come with us so that he could bring her a horse. He came with his two stallions, one of whom is 6 years old, and since his niece was visiting, gave her the ride on his dependable gelding Duncan and KP got to ride the older stallion.
I really like JM, he's a great trainer and rider but I should always remember how crazy our rides together always go! His horses are VERY hot and VERY fancy upper level horses and VERY big. He hadn't ridden the young stallion in a while and I have never seen a hotter horse I think. Plus he's giant. Like 17.2 hands I think. Anyways, KP and I hauled Trask out to the trails and met JM there. We tacked everyone up, which included the "Great Booting" since all the horses are barefoot. Between boot collections of KP, JM and mine, we managed to fit boots on all four horses. Trask stood very well tied to the trailer (which couldn't have been said of some other horses *cough* baby stallion *cough*).
Everyone hopped on and away we went with baby stallion charging ahead at the front, followed by KP on the more mature and manageable stallion, with Trask and Duncan bringing up the rear. It was an exciting start.
What followed was the most insane trail ride of my life. I felt bad for poor baby Trask, but now that we survived that experience, I am confident we can survive any other experience we can throw at him.
It was basically baby stallion trotting or cantering back and forth and back and forth in an effort for JM to get him to chill out. Trask was second in the line since he absolutely hated being in the back of the group. Then KP on the other stallion. She was feeling a little nervous about being on the stallion since he was not putting up with baby stallion's antics and he's a very strong horse. He was being perfectly behaved, but she ended up walking for a while. And reliable Duncan, literally a saint of a horse, bringing up the rear with his rider who couldn't steer or stop.
Trask got extremely worried when baby stallion got too far ahead of the group, complete with cantering in place and feeling like a bomb ready to go off. We had just reached the top of a hill, about an hour into our ride, at a place where we could either go around the long loop or just turn around and go back. JM wanted to keep going - he was having a blast on his fire breathing dragon of a horse (like I said, he's a great rider and seriously nothing could rattle or unseat him. Ever.) but KP was having a mini panic attack and was like "nope, we're going back" and turned around and led the way down the hill. (I think this was a fantastic choice)
The ride back down was much better for the most part, we were able to spend most of it on a loose rein. Trask was confident enough at this point to lead the group. Minus a few hilarious spooks, one when he stepped on a cruchy leaf and all four feet left the ground and then later when he stepped on a branch that lifted up and he teleported about five feet to the left and I landed on his neck. At one point JM got very far ahead of the group and Trask was having a come-apart about this. There was a cliff to our left and he started skittering left, completely ignoring my aids to move in the opposite direction. I let out a strangled yelp and JM turned back quickly, seeing what was happening, to come give Trask some company.
I seriously saw my life flash before my eyes. I thought we were going over the cliff.
After that, KP and I led the group with our horses side by side. They seemed to get along well, and JM and his niece brought up the rear. It ended with us nearly at the end and a mountain biker zooming past up. I heard a commotion as baby stallion spooked at the biker behind us, saw the biker coming for us and leaped off Trask. That was all I needed was for him to be surprised by a rude biker coming up his butt at a fast pace!
I seriously have not had a more rude experience with a biker. Every one (and I've encountered a ton since I trail ride a bunch) have usually either hopped off their bikes and waited for us to pass, walked their bike past us, or called out and asked if our horses were ok to pass. It's just common courtesy. Luckily, Trask only glanced at the biker since I had him tucked behind his new stallion friend.
The ride ended uneventfully and KP and I were stunned that we survived the chaos. Baby stallion is now permanently banned from future rides since we don't want to test our luck at not dying ...
I was extremely proud of how Trask handled that environment. It was utter chaos and while we had some spooks and scary moments, I cannot blame him for feeding off of that crazy energy. I think we will be absolutely ok to ride by ourselves in the future, and I definitely prefer being alone to that crazyness!
Other random pictures:
First up, last Sunday, Trask and I had our first trail ride together. He has been on trails before with the trainer, JM, who started him almost a year ago, but I don't think he has since then. Because of that I wanted to go with people for our first time and KP said she'd go with me. She just got her horse, Rogue (Trask's half brother) gelded so he is out of commission for a bit, so she needed a horse to ride. So she invited trainer JM to come with us so that he could bring her a horse. He came with his two stallions, one of whom is 6 years old, and since his niece was visiting, gave her the ride on his dependable gelding Duncan and KP got to ride the older stallion.
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| Pre-ride ciders for the pony |
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| Apparently he loves cider. A lot. |
I really like JM, he's a great trainer and rider but I should always remember how crazy our rides together always go! His horses are VERY hot and VERY fancy upper level horses and VERY big. He hadn't ridden the young stallion in a while and I have never seen a hotter horse I think. Plus he's giant. Like 17.2 hands I think. Anyways, KP and I hauled Trask out to the trails and met JM there. We tacked everyone up, which included the "Great Booting" since all the horses are barefoot. Between boot collections of KP, JM and mine, we managed to fit boots on all four horses. Trask stood very well tied to the trailer (which couldn't have been said of some other horses *cough* baby stallion *cough*).
Everyone hopped on and away we went with baby stallion charging ahead at the front, followed by KP on the more mature and manageable stallion, with Trask and Duncan bringing up the rear. It was an exciting start.
What followed was the most insane trail ride of my life. I felt bad for poor baby Trask, but now that we survived that experience, I am confident we can survive any other experience we can throw at him.
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| Apparently I should have drank more of the cider instead of Trask and maybe I would've been more relaxed! |
It was basically baby stallion trotting or cantering back and forth and back and forth in an effort for JM to get him to chill out. Trask was second in the line since he absolutely hated being in the back of the group. Then KP on the other stallion. She was feeling a little nervous about being on the stallion since he was not putting up with baby stallion's antics and he's a very strong horse. He was being perfectly behaved, but she ended up walking for a while. And reliable Duncan, literally a saint of a horse, bringing up the rear with his rider who couldn't steer or stop.
Trask got extremely worried when baby stallion got too far ahead of the group, complete with cantering in place and feeling like a bomb ready to go off. We had just reached the top of a hill, about an hour into our ride, at a place where we could either go around the long loop or just turn around and go back. JM wanted to keep going - he was having a blast on his fire breathing dragon of a horse (like I said, he's a great rider and seriously nothing could rattle or unseat him. Ever.) but KP was having a mini panic attack and was like "nope, we're going back" and turned around and led the way down the hill. (I think this was a fantastic choice)
The ride back down was much better for the most part, we were able to spend most of it on a loose rein. Trask was confident enough at this point to lead the group. Minus a few hilarious spooks, one when he stepped on a cruchy leaf and all four feet left the ground and then later when he stepped on a branch that lifted up and he teleported about five feet to the left and I landed on his neck. At one point JM got very far ahead of the group and Trask was having a come-apart about this. There was a cliff to our left and he started skittering left, completely ignoring my aids to move in the opposite direction. I let out a strangled yelp and JM turned back quickly, seeing what was happening, to come give Trask some company.
I seriously saw my life flash before my eyes. I thought we were going over the cliff.
After that, KP and I led the group with our horses side by side. They seemed to get along well, and JM and his niece brought up the rear. It ended with us nearly at the end and a mountain biker zooming past up. I heard a commotion as baby stallion spooked at the biker behind us, saw the biker coming for us and leaped off Trask. That was all I needed was for him to be surprised by a rude biker coming up his butt at a fast pace!
I seriously have not had a more rude experience with a biker. Every one (and I've encountered a ton since I trail ride a bunch) have usually either hopped off their bikes and waited for us to pass, walked their bike past us, or called out and asked if our horses were ok to pass. It's just common courtesy. Luckily, Trask only glanced at the biker since I had him tucked behind his new stallion friend.
The ride ended uneventfully and KP and I were stunned that we survived the chaos. Baby stallion is now permanently banned from future rides since we don't want to test our luck at not dying ...
I was extremely proud of how Trask handled that environment. It was utter chaos and while we had some spooks and scary moments, I cannot blame him for feeding off of that crazy energy. I think we will be absolutely ok to ride by ourselves in the future, and I definitely prefer being alone to that crazyness!
Other random pictures:
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| In other news we had a lovely evening ride a few nights ago! |
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| KP was kind enough to buy him a fancy new halter so he didn't have to wear the purple halter of shame |
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| Weirdo loves just holding the stirrup iron in his mouth... |
Monday, July 10, 2017
Lucky He's Cute
I ended up taking Trask to our first show together yesterday! It was... interesting to say the least.
I was pretty sure that it was going to be an interesting show with my lack of preparation. I've had Trask for a month and had maybe 10-12 rides on him with school and being gone so I was kind of on the edge about whether or not it was a good idea to go to the show or not.
We just did Intro A and B since our canter is still pretty iffy. My one goal was to stay on!
Of course the best show prep is to not ride for two days beforehand, right? I gave Trask a bath on Saturday night and loaded up the trailer, but didn't have time to clean any tack or anything. Sunday morning dawned wayyy too early, though it helped that I didn't really sleep the whole night before. Horse shows on 4 hours of sleep are super fun!
I braided Trask as soon as I got to the barn - at least we were going to look good even if we did awfully!
Once we got to the show I tied Trask to the trailer with his hay bag and then went into the tack room to start getting my tack. A piece of paper blew out of the tack room and spooked him, he set back and broke both his halter AND his lead rope before going for a nice jaunt around the property. That was such a fun way to start a show - 20 minutes of chasing a horse around the giant field and getting myself a very large blister in the process. I was not pleased.
We had nearly no warm-up after I caught Trask. Luckily I had an extra halter and a lunge line in the trailer to replace all our broken tack... We had 15 minutes to tack up, get on, and memorize our test. We had a quick walk-trot in the warm-up arena (after convincing Trask that the large blue flappy-tarp building was not going to eat him).
Our test went about in the same vein... the judges booth was absolutely terrifying (after all, they have all those horse eating papers in front of them!) and I didn't have enough time to convince him otherwise. Our test was tense and while mostly obedient (save the judges both), we were not accurate in the least.
We had just a couple minutes before our next ride so I quickly memorized the next test and again only had a couple minutes to trot around warm-up and convince Trask that some sort of softness would be nice. Our next test was much nicer. Still tense, with some nice giraffe moments of looking through the arena windows and whinnying at the other horses, but overall much better and there was only one little spook at the judges booth in one direction.
After our test we had a nice real ride in the outdoor, complete with cantering. It was nice to get Trask around other horses since we tend to only ride alone. Plus he came to terms with the scary blue tarp building so it wasn't all bad.
Overall, it was an interesting show. Not great, but it could have been worse. We got some nice comments from the judge, even managing to get a 63% in our second class which is respectable. Now we have more stuff to work on (can you say desensitizing to paper?!) and someone is now the proud new owner of a rope halter for practicing standing tied.
Hopefully we'll get a chance to redeem ourselves next month, schooling dressage shows are few and far between right now, but we are going to find some sort of show to make it to again!
I was pretty sure that it was going to be an interesting show with my lack of preparation. I've had Trask for a month and had maybe 10-12 rides on him with school and being gone so I was kind of on the edge about whether or not it was a good idea to go to the show or not.
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| Pre-show lunge |
We just did Intro A and B since our canter is still pretty iffy. My one goal was to stay on!
Of course the best show prep is to not ride for two days beforehand, right? I gave Trask a bath on Saturday night and loaded up the trailer, but didn't have time to clean any tack or anything. Sunday morning dawned wayyy too early, though it helped that I didn't really sleep the whole night before. Horse shows on 4 hours of sleep are super fun!
I braided Trask as soon as I got to the barn - at least we were going to look good even if we did awfully!
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| I was pretty happy with my 10 minute rubber band braids |
Once we got to the show I tied Trask to the trailer with his hay bag and then went into the tack room to start getting my tack. A piece of paper blew out of the tack room and spooked him, he set back and broke both his halter AND his lead rope before going for a nice jaunt around the property. That was such a fun way to start a show - 20 minutes of chasing a horse around the giant field and getting myself a very large blister in the process. I was not pleased.
We had nearly no warm-up after I caught Trask. Luckily I had an extra halter and a lunge line in the trailer to replace all our broken tack... We had 15 minutes to tack up, get on, and memorize our test. We had a quick walk-trot in the warm-up arena (after convincing Trask that the large blue flappy-tarp building was not going to eat him).
Our test went about in the same vein... the judges booth was absolutely terrifying (after all, they have all those horse eating papers in front of them!) and I didn't have enough time to convince him otherwise. Our test was tense and while mostly obedient (save the judges both), we were not accurate in the least.
We had just a couple minutes before our next ride so I quickly memorized the next test and again only had a couple minutes to trot around warm-up and convince Trask that some sort of softness would be nice. Our next test was much nicer. Still tense, with some nice giraffe moments of looking through the arena windows and whinnying at the other horses, but overall much better and there was only one little spook at the judges booth in one direction.
After our test we had a nice real ride in the outdoor, complete with cantering. It was nice to get Trask around other horses since we tend to only ride alone. Plus he came to terms with the scary blue tarp building so it wasn't all bad.
Overall, it was an interesting show. Not great, but it could have been worse. We got some nice comments from the judge, even managing to get a 63% in our second class which is respectable. Now we have more stuff to work on (can you say desensitizing to paper?!) and someone is now the proud new owner of a rope halter for practicing standing tied.
Hopefully we'll get a chance to redeem ourselves next month, schooling dressage shows are few and far between right now, but we are going to find some sort of show to make it to again!
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| Only "real" photo of us we had since I failed to sign up for pictures. He's so lucky he's cute!! |
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