3 Things to Do When it's Too Cold to Ride

In case you've been living under a rock lately, I'll inform you that it's been super cold all over the country.  And when I say super cold, I'm talking single digit high's and negative double digit lows as far south as the sleepy town of Blacksburg, VA.  This is cold folks and weather this cold is quite honestly dangerous for you and your horse to ride in.

The ground is frozen, and makes for bad footing, and should they get sweaty and wet, you can increase their chances of getting too cold.  In addition, if you go out and ride in these conditions you have a chance for a case of frost bite.  I love my horse and all, but I prefer to keep all my fingers and toes.

So, what does one do when it's too cold to ride?  Here are my suggestions.

1.  Clean Tack
You are bored, take your tack inside and clean the stuff.  And as long as it is as cold as it is for as long as it is, clean ALL of your tack.  Yes, all those extra pieces of tack that you don't even use, those need to be oiled too!  I like Neatsfoot oil.  If you need to buy some, try here:  http://www.horse.com/item/lexol-nf-neatsfoot-leather-dressing/BPL07/.   But what's great about Neatsfoot oil, is that it hydrates the leather and prolongs the life of the leather.  You just poor some on a cloth and rub in.  If you have stiff leather, use this oil, and work the leather (as much as you can handle) and it will loosen up.  If it's really bad, feel free to soak your leather in oil overnight, that will also help.  If you don't like the oil, Lexol makes all kinds of great products to clean and protect your saddle, bridle, and various other pieces of tack.

2. Do some research
We all like to ride and we can all benefit from learning more about riding.  No one knows everything about horses, and there isn't one magical solution for creating the perfect horse.  One of my favorite publications is Equus  (http://www.equisearch.com/magazines/equus/).  They have good all around information about horse health and riding tips.  I also like Horse & Rider which is a little more Western geared (http://www.equisearch.com/magazines/horse-and-rider/).  Check out this website for all kinds of great information on horses:  http://www.discoverhorses.com/.

4. Go to a clinic
Since you can't ride, go watch someone else do the riding and training.  One of my favorite trainers is Clinton Anderson.  He is very pragmatic and easy to follow (http://www.downunderhorsemanship.com/).  If he is coming to your area soon, you can even submit your horse to be a demo horse.  Great way to get a day or two of training!

There are also often smaller named trainers all over the country, seek them out and see what winter clinics they may be offering and go watch.  It is always great to see another perspective on problem areas that we all experience.  Chase Dodd used to be in my area, but there are others out there like him.  If you happen to be in TN/GA/AL, check him out:  http://www.chasedodd.com/

3. Plan a horsey trip
I often get the winter time blues, so I have found that if I have something to look forward to, my current condition doesn't seem so bad.  Since Chief and I mostly do trail riding, check out http://www.equitrekkingtravel.com/deals.  They have all kinds of suggestions of where you can take your own horse, or travel to other places and ride their horses.

So, best of luck to you in the frigid temperatures.  Take care of yourself and your horse and make the best out of this cold season.  Remember there are just 49 days until spring!

Chief and I snuck a little trail ride in the other day... the ground was a mess... but this was one of the better spots!


 

The Right Lead!

Have I mentioned how much I love Daylight Savings Time?  No, well let me tell you, I freaking LOVE Daylight Savings Time!  Tonight Chief and I went for a nice 30 minute ride and it didn't even start to get real dark until 8:00 pm, that's right folks 8:00 pm.  Its just wonderful, I don't even have to sneak out of work early to catch the daylight.

So tonight Chief and I started on the new, new trail but instead of going left towards the jumps, we went right to shorten the ride.  Once Chief realized we were taking the short route, he got fired up.  It had been unseasonably warm (not that I'm complaining) and was starting to cool off, and on top of that, it was nearly feeding time.  So Chief thought he'd be a spicy meatball.  We starting tearing up the hills, and holding him back hard down the hills.  But since he was feeling so good, I decided to try and signal him for the right lead.

For those unfamiliar with the gaits of horses, there are essentially 3 gates, walk, trot, canter.  When a horse canters, they will lead with either the left or right front leg.  And in the show world, you always have a horse lead with the inside leg.  So this is a big deal if you show, not so much if you trail ride.  However, a horse can over develop the muscles on one side or the other if you only cater on one lead.  So, it is best to have your horse canter on both the right and left leads.  Just like people, horses can be right or left handed if you will and they will favor one side over the other.  Chief is left handed.  So left handed in fact, it is really hard to get him to canter on the right side.  We have been working on this for years...  We have worked in the ring, we tried what Clinton Anderson told us, we tried it all.  Ultimately, my training method was to let him pick which lead he wanted (usually the left) and signal him with that lead (right leg behind the girth, left leg at the girth).  On occasion, when his left side would get tired, he'll pick up the right lead and that is when I would signal to him the right lead (left leg behind the girth, right leg at the girth).  This truly has never worked until today.  Chief is a smart horse, and also a lazy horse.  So while he knows what to do, he's too lazy to use the right lead.  Or at least I was never sure if he knew the difference between right and left leads.  But today, since Chief was all sorts of spicy, he was more willing to pick up the right lead.  So I signaled for the right lead 3 times and sure enough, all 3 times, he picked it up!  This deserved lots of verbal praise and lots of patting on the neck.  I was so proud!  I then signaled a left lead and mixed it up with the right lead and he was picking them up right every time.  So, now that he knows the difference, and I know, he knows the difference, he's going to have to do this every time.  From now on, if he picks up the wrong lead, I'll bring him down to a trot and then back up to the canter until he picks up the correct lead.  Now the hard part for me will be to consistent with this.  But that is the only way he'll get better.  Reminder to self...

So we finished up the ride by taking the Creek Trail back up to the barn.  We finished up just before the sun started to go down.

It was a great evening and the weather couldn't have been more perfect.  Chief even got an extra treat, not that he needed it... but he was a good boy today so he deserved it.

By the way, should you have suggestions about any training topics, feel free to comment on what has worked for you.  I'm always open to good ideas!

Runaway Horse!

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

Winter Trail Ride

Well thanks to rain and the holiday season, I've not been able to ride nearly as much as I'd like.  But that is just how life goes in the winter time.  There is always another Christmas party to attend, another gift to buy, etc.  Now, I try to schedule these types of activities on rainy days but it just doesn't work out that way sometimes.  So this past week I had to ride in less than ideal conditions, but beggars can't be choosy right?

It was rainy though not raining, the ground was pretty wet though not soaked, and it was cold but not that cold. And it had been nearly two weeks since I'd gotten in a good ride so I decided to venture out.  Chief was a little hesitant at first (he typically is).  There is a certain creek crossing that he often refuses to cross.  Now folks this horse is not scared of the water, he is just plain lazy and we've had "discussions" at this location before and why not break tradition right?  This day he may have crossed it, but I had to stop and take a picture because I couldn't believe how high the water was.

And since I stopped, Chief decided our lack of momentum was a great reason to stop and refuse to go forward.  Now, if you have a horse like this, my way of dealing with it is simple.  I very nicely squeeze with my legs, put my hands forward, and ask him to move on.  If he backs up, I let him back up.  If there is something behind him to run into that is really nice because he typically scares himself forward.  In this instance, I was not so lucky.  So once he stops, I ask again with digging my heels into his sides, hands forward again.  If he still doesn't listen, I smack him on the butt which usually causes him to do a crow hop.  He thinks this will scare me.  However, I immediately whack his butt again to show that a crow hop gets a smack.  I call it the double tap.  This usually gets him moving forward as he doesn't like getting smacked with a crop. If the crow hops continue, the smacks continue.  It didn't go this far this time, but it has in the past.  As soon as he stops crow hopping and moves forward, the punishment stops.  It has to be immediate.  Clinton Anderson always says make the wrong thing hard and the right thing easy so I do my best to follow this saying.  Also, you will notice that I always ask nicely first, a little firm the next time, and if you don't listen by the third time, then I'm showing additional force.

So we continued on the trail also known as the workout trail.  Maybe this is why Chief hates this creek crossing, he knows there's lots of work on the other side of that creek...  But once we got over that hurdle Chief found some spunk.  I've had him on grain now for about three weeks.  In the winter Chief looses weight so I put him on grain to keep the weight on.  Well this also puts a little fire into him so once we got rolling it was hard to get him to stop.  This is what you get for not riding for nearly two weeks!  We galloped up the hills and I just hang on.  Luckily I was wearing my chaps, love those things!  There is a really pretty little spot on this trail that I just love.  You come down a steep hill into a creek crossing and go right back up, but its a pretty little area.

The sound of the water and being out on the trail in the cold alone was great.  We (I) complain about the cold but in no time at all it'll be summer again and the creeks will be dry.  So I must remember to enjoy the winter because it is wetter.  The footing on the trail was less than ideal but it didn't seem to bother Chief as he continued to tear up the hills.  We winded our way back down to the creek trail and headed toward the barn. By the end of it, Chief had finally wore himself out so that was a good thing.  I made a mental note to myself to make sure I get up to the barn a little more often so I don't have such a crazy horse.  But we had a great time, and the weekend is already within site again!