Falling in to Winter

This week in east Tennessee was a warm one.  Today's high was around 68 degrees which is pretty darn warm even for this area.  In fact, today was our local Christmas parade and I can remember every other year I've been here it has been bitterly cold and I've not wanted to go.  I didn't realize the parade was today otherwise I might have gone, but then I would have missed excellent riding weather.  And one can't miss excellent riding weather this time of year.  The fall is coming to a close and we are headed in to winter.  We've been blessed with mild temperatures so far but everyone is calling for a cold winter this year because last year was mild.  So, I'm going to enjoy the nice weather while it lasts.

Earlier this week Chief and I hit the trails on our own.  We took the Creek trail to connect up to Pumpkin Patch Hill.  Chief was being lazy on the uphill per usual and I kept having to urge him on.  But as we made it to the top of the hill we then cut across to Rocky Top trail.  There is a nice flat spot for cantering through the first part so I took the opportunity to try out asking for the right lead.  Yes, we are still working on leads and though Chief has gotten much better, he still isn't consistent.  I'm also trying to make my signals less obvious. Right now I am holding his head to the left hard and using the inside right leg hard to signal a right lead and while it is effective, if I were in a show ring it would be pretty ugly.  So, we are working on consistency and being a little more subtle.  Midway through the Rocky Top trail you have to cross the gravel road which gives you a nice view of the area.  The picture below is of the little pond and in the distance is a little white building.  That building is a church that you pass on the drive up to the barn.  This time of year with the leaves all down, you really can see for some distance.

   From there we headed back down towards the Submarine trail.  There are some nice flat spots to canter here as well.  But we had to stop and take in the view of the creek as it really was a nice afternoon.

There are a lot of new trees down, luckily most of them have fallen away from the trail rather than on it.  But you can see this tree has made it into the creek.  I guess we've had our share of inclement weather recently which brings the trees down.  From the Submarine trail Chief and I headed up the short route home towards the other ponds rather than the Creek trail.  Prior to hitting the trail, we had spent a little time in the arena so I knew Chief was getting a bit tired.  So I thought the short route home would be a good idea.  It was a nice little ride and we added some time to the log book.

Til next time, happy trails!

I'm back!

So I took a little hiatus from blogging, not to say I wasn't loving what I was doing, just that I had to focus on finishing school.  Between work, a social life, 2 classes, and of course the horse, something had to give and it was the blog.  So please accept my apologies and rejoice in the fact that I am back at it!

So Chief and I went out for a nice 2 hour long ride today.  It was an awesome day, nice and overcast with a great breeze so it wasn't heinously hot.  This is very uncharacteristic for Tennessee in August, but I'm certainly not complaining.  Chief and I started out on the new trail which goes through the woods so we were nice and shaded.  We've also had quite a bit of rain recently and with the heat there were mushrooms all over the place.  There were so many different varieties but this one was a brilliant red so I thought I'd share it.

 Chief was feeling awful frisky at this point in the trail so I thought we better make it a long ride today to wear him out.  So we made it back to the creek trail and took the hill up to what is normally the pumpkin patch.  So imagine my surprise when we saw all the corn.  It was as tall as we were!

From there we headed down to the big pond to work on leads.  Yes, Chief and I are still struggling with the left and right leads.  I say struggling because he often picks up the incorrect lead, but overall, I would say he is getting better at it.  He strongly favors that left lead so when it doubt that is what he picks up.  But, I keep working on him to get more comfortable on the right side.  So every time he picks up the incorrect lead, I bring him back to the trot and ask again.  I repeat this process until he finally picks up the correct lead.  Of course being on the trails we sometimes have to take a break while we navigate a hill or rocky spot so I think this slows the learning process down.  I personally don't mind this because trail riding is way more interesting than the ring.  So if we are slow learners then so be it.  At least we have great scenery.  Once we took a lap around the pond, we went over to Big'ens to ride around in the nice open field again to work on leads.

For those of you unaware, the Eastern time zone meets the Central time zone on the eastern side of Tennessee where Chief just so happens to live.  This makes things confusing when you check your cell phone because it often pings off the Central towers so its helpful to have a watch or set the phone so it doesn't automatically change.  But this cute little sign its right at Big'ens place.  Big'en has a brother who is called Little'en.  Rightly so, the bigger of the two is Little'en...

Overall it was a beautiful day, the weather was warm but not too hot, and the creeks were full.  Chief was a good boy and wasn't too bad with his leads.  I couldn't ask for much more on an August trail ride!

Strawberry Fields

Last week Chief and I went all over the farm.  The weather was pretty perfect so we took a good two hour trail ride.  Chief is a registered Paint Horse so we are members of the APHA and we participate in the Ride America program.  Since we started in 2008 (I think) we've got somewhere around 200 total hours.  So far this year with last week's ride we have 17 hours and 15 minutes.  That isn't too bad considering I work full time and also have school part time...  But I always want more time, maybe come July when I am done with school the hours will start racking up...  

This week we started out on the cow pasture trail.

This was the same trail we lost a shoe on, but there hasn't been much rain so it was less muddy and we made it out with all 4 shoes!  We continued on the cow pasture trail and Chief was feeling spunky.  There are some great places to canter on this trail, so we were letting loose.  As we came around a turn, I saw a new limb that was hanging over the side of the trail.  We were going pretty fast and I thought we could make it under and to the side of it... we didn't...  I clipped my knee on the branch that really didn't give.  Ouch!!  I said a few loud obscenities, but no one was around to hear.  I could feel my knee had been scraped up and I could tell it was going to bruise.  No need to roll up my jeans and inspect, just another war wound of being a rider.  We then headed back towards the creek trail but rather than go left we went right toward the Submarine trail.  I was just thinking about how lately Chief and I hadn't had any moments of where he refused to go forward.  I also realized it was because we hadn't taken a long trail in awhile.  So as we started to take the long way Chief began to refuse, but with a little encouragement from the whip, he walked right on.  Whew, no major fight today.  We then headed up the hill to the strawberry fields.  It is a little early in the season, but I thought it would be fun to go check them out and see how they are coming along.

Good news, the strawberries are coming in just fine.  I may have had to sample the product just to be sure :).  I can't wait for the Hughes family to start selling the big bushels of strawberries.  I love this time of year, fresh fruit and a little bit later fresh vegetables.  It is so much fun to buy your food right from the farmers that grew it.  I always buy from their stand right off of Highway 111.  But if you are in the area, the Hughes family is always at the Chattanooga Market on Sundays, go see them!  And the market starts tomorrow!

From here, we went down to the big pond.  I love that big pond.

It is so pretty down here and its nice and flat so there are a lot of great places to run.  So, we took a tour around the pond.

We then headed back up the hill towards the strawberry fields but took the Pumpkin Patch hill trail home.  Chief was tired at the end, but it was a great ride.  

Til next time!

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!