So last weekend, Chief and I hit the trails with Double Trouble A. and A. and another cohort T. So we had a nice little group. Chief is often extra excitable when we ride with so many horses but this day he was super excited. Not only were we out with his arch competitor Dandy, but we also hadn't ridden in two weeks. Remember how I said I wasn't going to do that again? Well life happens, what can you do?
It was a super foggy, gray, chilly day, but it was warm enough to ride so we went out. We all like the new, new trail so we decided to do that one again. I was in the back which is good for Chief, he needs to learn how to follow. He's a great leader, but great leaders need to be good followers too! Right away Chief wanted to stay on the behind of Kris. I find this bad manners so I kept asking him to slow down but Chief wasn't up much for listening. There's all these horses and we haven't been out in awhile and it's all so exciting!! At least for Chief... You'll notice there are no pictures from this trip. Well folks, my hands were full of reins so I wasn't able to get any shots so you'll have to excuse this post.
I tried lots of different things to absolve this situation. It is very helpful that while Chief will come out of the gate strong, he lacks in stamina. So after a couple of big hills, Chief was much easier to keep off of Kris's rear. But, I kept thinking "What would Clinton Anderson do?" Clinton has a lot of great sayings like "Move Your Feet" and "Make the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard." So I kept repeating these in my head. So, first I tried pulling back on the reins and when Chief would give in the mouth and slow even a tiny bit, I would release the pressure. Of course as soon as I released the pressure, he would speed up again. So when my arms started getting tired, I decided to serpentine him whenever the trail was flat enough. At this point I was thinking, "move your feet." He was sooo excited so if I directed his feet where to go, I thought maybe he would slow down. That didn't work so well.... So next I tried make the wrong thing hard, so every time we got too close to Kris, I would do tight circles, this is also good for "move your feet." That seemed to help the most. So the plan became, ask him nicely with the reins to slow down. If he didn't listen after three tries, do two circles. And repeat, and repeat, and repeat. Most importantly, I added lots of praise when Chief was doing good and keeping his distance. Also, if he automatically slowed down when Kris did, he got event more praise. That is what a good follower does. He sees the horse in front of him slow down so he does too, rather than running up on his butt. Yeah, that's a dangerous situation... Thank you to Kris for being a good boy and not kicking the snot out of Chief (though he deserved it).
By the end of the ride, I felt like we were doing pretty good, keeping a decent amount of distance betwen Chief and Kris. So persistance pays off folks! If you've never heard of Clinton Anderson and are interested in natural ways to train your horse, I suggest you check out his website http://www.downunderhorsemanship.com/. He does clinics throughout the year all over the country and of course has tons of DVD's for purchase. All in all, it was a good ride with good friends. Whenever we can hit the trails its a good day!
downunderhorsemanship.com
Monday, January 30, 2012
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Want to hear a dirty joke?
Want to hear a dirty joke? My mostly white horse rolled in chicken poop!
So those of you who are unfamiliar, chicken manure makes a great fertilizer. Lucky for Triple H, they are a true working farm and they have chickens. Lots and lots of chickens that make lots and lots of poop. So for great spring grass they spread chicken manure on the fields a couple of weeks ago and Chief loved it. He loved it so much, he rolled and rolled in it. And chicken poop is sticky, so its not so easy to just brush off. So after about 10-15 minutes of brushing, I was finally able to get saddled up. I was thankful that this day was decidedly overcast and would most likely rain later. The rain will clean him up!
This day Chief and I had some welcome company. Double trouble A. and A. went riding with us on their horses Dandy and Kris. I decided to show them my new version of the new trail. Has it now become the new new trail? Either way it was a good ride. We did a little jumping, a little cantering, and a little jogging.
This is A. taking a cross country jump. Though we ride western it is lots of fun to pretend to be cross country riders. Pandora our other four legged trail mate joined us for this ride. We took the short way home this day as we were short on time. But it was a fun little ride.
Dandy is also a paint horse as you can tell from the picture and he and Chief have a little rivalry. In the beginning, Dandy and Chief were pasture mates and they were forever picking on one another. Every time I came up to see Chief he had a new bite or kick mark on him. This is to be expected when new horses are finding their pecking order, but usually they settle it pretty quick. Well Dandy and Chief could not settle their differences even after several months. I like to think its because they fight over who's prettier. So, I separated them. Chief didn't need to be in the grain pasture anyways, he was getting awful fat. So they were separated for some time but whenever we rode together they would always race one another up hills and what not. One day, Chief was getting skinny so I had to put him back in the grain pasture. I was so nervous to put them back together but this time around, they got along just fine. I guess they just needed some time apart. But this day on the trail was no different from other rides. Chief couldn't let Dandy get too far ahead of him and vice versa. This is kind of fun for me at least because there is always a little extra hop in Chief's step. This also leads to dirt clods in the face while we race after one another. But who cares, its lots of fun! Til next time!
So those of you who are unfamiliar, chicken manure makes a great fertilizer. Lucky for Triple H, they are a true working farm and they have chickens. Lots and lots of chickens that make lots and lots of poop. So for great spring grass they spread chicken manure on the fields a couple of weeks ago and Chief loved it. He loved it so much, he rolled and rolled in it. And chicken poop is sticky, so its not so easy to just brush off. So after about 10-15 minutes of brushing, I was finally able to get saddled up. I was thankful that this day was decidedly overcast and would most likely rain later. The rain will clean him up!
This day Chief and I had some welcome company. Double trouble A. and A. went riding with us on their horses Dandy and Kris. I decided to show them my new version of the new trail. Has it now become the new new trail? Either way it was a good ride. We did a little jumping, a little cantering, and a little jogging.
Dandy is also a paint horse as you can tell from the picture and he and Chief have a little rivalry. In the beginning, Dandy and Chief were pasture mates and they were forever picking on one another. Every time I came up to see Chief he had a new bite or kick mark on him. This is to be expected when new horses are finding their pecking order, but usually they settle it pretty quick. Well Dandy and Chief could not settle their differences even after several months. I like to think its because they fight over who's prettier. So, I separated them. Chief didn't need to be in the grain pasture anyways, he was getting awful fat. So they were separated for some time but whenever we rode together they would always race one another up hills and what not. One day, Chief was getting skinny so I had to put him back in the grain pasture. I was so nervous to put them back together but this time around, they got along just fine. I guess they just needed some time apart. But this day on the trail was no different from other rides. Chief couldn't let Dandy get too far ahead of him and vice versa. This is kind of fun for me at least because there is always a little extra hop in Chief's step. This also leads to dirt clods in the face while we race after one another. But who cares, its lots of fun! Til next time!
Sunday, January 8, 2012
New Year's Eve Ride
In case you missed it there was a most glorious warm front that came into the south on New Year's Eve day. I decided I must take advantage of such spectacular weather and hit the trails. There was literally not a cloud in the sky.
I was feeling adventurous so I decided to take a new route. With the recent logging on the New Trail, we've been unable to use most of it. Since I found out exactly where the logging is going on, I now knew how to navigate the trail. Instead of going down the hill and to the right, you now go straight, crossing the creek and going up the hill. Then you go left at the fork which leads into some nice flat spots on the New Trail, so now you are headed backwards on the New Trail. Before you get to the next creek crossing you turn right and head up the hill on to Bowater. For those of you not from the area, Bowater is a paper plant that owns land all over the area. They of course grow trees on it so that they can cut those trees down every so often. So there are plenty of logging roads all over their property. Now I'm not certain of the requirements of a person to be on their land, but we've pretty much got free rein. So once you hit Bowater you can go left up to the tomato field or right back towards the New Trail. I went right just because that tomato field is a long ways away... You then look for the purple dot on the tree and then head back on to Hughes land. Yes, one of our boarders that often, self admittedly, gets lost, spray painted a large purple dot on a tree so they'd know when to turn back on to Hughes land. I personally love it because it helps me remember where to go too. This trail then winds itself back across the creek where you can hit multiple trails. This day I decided to head up what I call Pumpkin Patch Hill because this leads you to the Rocky Top Trail which has a great straight flat spot to canter through. Rocky Top Trail is designated as such because of all the great rock outcroppings.
This trail crosses the gravel road and winds its way back to the Submarine Trail (also greater for cantering) and then to the Creek Trail. All said and done it was a solid two hours on the trail. Chief was dripping wet! It was a warm 60 degrees and sunny with not a cloud in the sky and with all his heavy winter fur he was hot. There is that old saying about riding a horse hard and putting him up wet. I'm not sure where that came from but that is pretty much what I did. Now, I did brush him down good and made sure he cooled off all the way before putting him up which is just the safe thing to do. Darn finicky horse stomachs can get upset if they eat too much or drink too much cold water immediately after working out. So be sure to let your horse at least cool off before putting him up. A good test of this is to touch his chest, if its hot, then he's still hot and needs to cool down more. If its just warm, or normal body temperature, he's good to put up.
Since my buddy Chief is a registered Paint horse, I am a member of the American Paint Horse Association. They have a great program called Ride America. It's for us paint owners that aren't in to showing but want to be a part of something. Its really simple, you keep a log of the hours you ride and send it in at the end of each year. If you ride in national parks its worth double the hours. At certain mile stones there are prizes and what not. I've reached 100 hours so I got my 100 hours patch and a coffee mug. Prizes get better as you go. I'll let you know when I reach the next milestone at 500 hours. But this program is free to all registered members so I play along. This year I was able to log 86 1/2 hours of total trail time. Not bad for a person that works full time and is also in school! I think this will put me overall somewhere around 300 hours since I started which was in 2008. Maybe after graduation in August, I'll be able to start logging more hours. So maybe my New Year's resolution will be to ride more often...
Happy New Year!
I was feeling adventurous so I decided to take a new route. With the recent logging on the New Trail, we've been unable to use most of it. Since I found out exactly where the logging is going on, I now knew how to navigate the trail. Instead of going down the hill and to the right, you now go straight, crossing the creek and going up the hill. Then you go left at the fork which leads into some nice flat spots on the New Trail, so now you are headed backwards on the New Trail. Before you get to the next creek crossing you turn right and head up the hill on to Bowater. For those of you not from the area, Bowater is a paper plant that owns land all over the area. They of course grow trees on it so that they can cut those trees down every so often. So there are plenty of logging roads all over their property. Now I'm not certain of the requirements of a person to be on their land, but we've pretty much got free rein. So once you hit Bowater you can go left up to the tomato field or right back towards the New Trail. I went right just because that tomato field is a long ways away... You then look for the purple dot on the tree and then head back on to Hughes land. Yes, one of our boarders that often, self admittedly, gets lost, spray painted a large purple dot on a tree so they'd know when to turn back on to Hughes land. I personally love it because it helps me remember where to go too. This trail then winds itself back across the creek where you can hit multiple trails. This day I decided to head up what I call Pumpkin Patch Hill because this leads you to the Rocky Top Trail which has a great straight flat spot to canter through. Rocky Top Trail is designated as such because of all the great rock outcroppings.
This trail crosses the gravel road and winds its way back to the Submarine Trail (also greater for cantering) and then to the Creek Trail. All said and done it was a solid two hours on the trail. Chief was dripping wet! It was a warm 60 degrees and sunny with not a cloud in the sky and with all his heavy winter fur he was hot. There is that old saying about riding a horse hard and putting him up wet. I'm not sure where that came from but that is pretty much what I did. Now, I did brush him down good and made sure he cooled off all the way before putting him up which is just the safe thing to do. Darn finicky horse stomachs can get upset if they eat too much or drink too much cold water immediately after working out. So be sure to let your horse at least cool off before putting him up. A good test of this is to touch his chest, if its hot, then he's still hot and needs to cool down more. If its just warm, or normal body temperature, he's good to put up.
Since my buddy Chief is a registered Paint horse, I am a member of the American Paint Horse Association. They have a great program called Ride America. It's for us paint owners that aren't in to showing but want to be a part of something. Its really simple, you keep a log of the hours you ride and send it in at the end of each year. If you ride in national parks its worth double the hours. At certain mile stones there are prizes and what not. I've reached 100 hours so I got my 100 hours patch and a coffee mug. Prizes get better as you go. I'll let you know when I reach the next milestone at 500 hours. But this program is free to all registered members so I play along. This year I was able to log 86 1/2 hours of total trail time. Not bad for a person that works full time and is also in school! I think this will put me overall somewhere around 300 hours since I started which was in 2008. Maybe after graduation in August, I'll be able to start logging more hours. So maybe my New Year's resolution will be to ride more often...
Happy New Year!
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