Seriously?

So trail riding folks I've been cheating on you... that's right, I've been riding English.  I know, I know, I can't believe it either but I have this dream of turning Chief into an Eventer.  No he doesn't like stadium jumping or dressage, but he could be good at cross country.  One out of three ain't bad right?

Well my foray into jumping has been a bumpy ride.  My In-Laws have an old English saddle that they've let me take over because no one has ridden in it except for me in the past 10 years or so.  But since no one has been in it, the leather is a bit warped and was painful to ride in.  So I worked out the leather with Neastfoot Oil and made it slightly more comfortable and with a pair of chaps, it's not so bad.  But then my stirrup leathers were too long so I got the hubs to put another hole in them and now they fit right.  So I thought on Monday when I went up to ride that I was finally set in my English saddle.

It started out good enough we spent some time in the arena working on transitions and leads.  And the leads are getting better, I am happy to report.  Then we went down to the lower arena because some jumps were set up and we went over a couple of those cleanly (maybe not pretty) but clean.  I felt Chief getting tired so I took him around the pastures.  As we were headed for home, I signaled for the right lead and he picked up the left so I pulled back on the reins to slow him down.  We were headed for home so it was a little tougher to slow him down than normal, when all of a sudden my left foot fell right out from underneath me.  Now this could have been catastrophic but I was able to grab my seat easy enough.  I looked down at my stirrup and most of it was gone.  That's right gone.  Seriously?  Did the stirrup iron just break?  I looked down again to double check.  The stirrups are breakaway stirrups so I thought maybe the rubber band just broke, but no it was the iron itself that had snapped in two.  So we retraced our steps and I was able to find the stirrup so I jumped off, which was a sight without the left stirrup, and picked it up.  Of course there was no riding back since my left stirrup was gone but it was a short walk back to the barn.  When I got back, I took this picture.

So yes, this can happen and apparently it happens to me.  I think someone might be trying to tell me something but I'm going to ignore it and go get a new set of stirrup irons.  The moral of the story folks is learn to ride without being dependent on your stirrups, you never know when you might loose one...

Happy Trails!

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!

3 Alternate Uses For Your Riding Crop

People ask me why I carry a crop when I go trail riding.  Aside from the obvious answer, I have a lazy horse that often needs encouragement to go faster, there are a couple of other reasons I take the crop along.

Use 1:  Fly Swatter
In the summer time, the flies and gnats can be really annoying for both Chief and me so I carry a crop as a fly swatter.  For me, when the gnats keep flying around my face, I swish it around my shoulders, bouncing from one shoulder to the other and back.  This keeps those little buggers from buzzing around my ears.  Also, Chief is plagued by those sweat flies that like to attack his ears.  I put plenty of bug spray on but he sweats and then its all over, enter the flies.  So, I use the crop to brush the flies off of his ears so he doesn't have to shake his head so much.  WARNING:  Be sure to desensitize your horse to the crop so you don't spook him by touching his ears on a ride.  As I get close to the barn, while we are cooling off after a long ride, I do weird stuff while in the saddle to try and throw Chief off.  Since he's tired this a great time to do funky stuff like run the crop over his hind end, over his ears, shift around a lot in the saddle, etc.  This gets your horse used to you not sitting prim and proper so if something spooks him or you, he won't be thrown off by you wiggling around.  It's also good in case kids ever ride your horse, gets them used to the unexpected.

Use 2:  Trail Clearer
Trails are always a work in progress in that there are often trees across the trail or bushes grow and enter the trail space.  These branches and bushes are sometimes hard to grab while riding so I use a crop to push the branches out of my way.  This can be helpful especially while going faster than a trot and keeps you from getting scraped up.

Use 3:  Brier Remover
Just like bushes and trees, briers often take over the trail especially in the summer.  Since chaps aren't a possibility in the summer, (just because its too hot) getting briers off the trail before they get to you can be a big deal.  Those briers hurt and typically will go through a pair of jeans so having a crop on the trail to push those aside keeps you from getting scraped up.

So, on your next trail ride take a crop along and have it handy for multiple uses. The crop you choose to use is also important.  I have a red one so in case I drop it, it is easy to find.  Those English black ones blend in to the scenery so having one a different color like red will stand out if you drop it.  Of course use the little wrist let on the end, but crazy things happen sometimes.

Happy Trails!

3 Baby Products to Use On Your Horse

After working at a dude ranch, a boarding barn, and now being a horse owner, I've come across some products that you may have in your home that can be used around the barn too.  Turns out a few baby products are very useful in the horse world.

Product 1:  Baby powder
Got a creaky saddle?  Put baby powder under the skirt of your western saddle to eliminate that creaky noise.  Its a very simple technique, all you have to do is apply liberally.  This works for several months at a time.  If the noise comes back, just reapply.

Product 2:  Desitin
Desitin is used to eliminate diaper rash most commonly, but it has another use for pink nosed horses.  Horses like Chief that have a pink nose often suffer from sunburn in the summer.  Get a tube of Desitin and apply liberally to the nose.  This product is packed with zinc so it soothes sores that occur from sunburn.  And the zinc also acts as as sunscreen to product the skin from further damage.  The smell isn't fun for the horse, but they get over it just like using any other product on them.

Product 3:  Baby Oil
This one is one of my favorites.  For those of us with gelding horses, sheath cleaning is a chore that we don't really like all that much.  So to lengthen the time between sheath cleanings, when your horse is "hanging out" squirt some baby oil on his manly part.  The oil lubricates the area and helps to keep it clean thereby lengthening the time between cleanings.  I do this every couple of months or when I happen to notice Chief is hanging out.  Every horse is different in the frequency of sheath cleanings.  I've known some horse owners to clean once a month and others once a year.  Chief usually avoids any problems with a cleaning twice a year with baby oil in between cleanings.  Try it out and see what works for you.

Got any other products that we use in our daily lives that gets taken to the barn?  Feel free to share.

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!

Weeknight Rides

So it is staying light enough just late enough that I can squeeze in an evening ride.  So tonight, Chief and I went for a short trail ride.  He was a ball of fire this afternoon.  I'm not sure if he knew it was almost feeding time or if the Vet gave him some extra good shots today, but Chief was a big old ball of energy.  I had to hold him back quite a bit, but we did lots of cantering and had a good old time.

The Vet came up to the barn today and Chief got his yearly shots.  You know the normal rabies, west nile, Coggins, and the like.  For those of you that show and or travel a bit with your horse, you know that a Coggins test is a must every year.  It was also time for teeth floating.  For those unaware, every so often, horses need to have their teeth floated to grind down sharp points on their teeth.  Of course this must be done by a Vet and they have to be sedated slightly to have it done.  But it had been about 4 years since the last time Chief had this done, so he was a little overdue.  If you don't float your horses teeth as needed, it will become painful to chew and your horse will often loose more gain than he gets.  Or, if it becomes bad enough he won't eat enough or at all.  So be sure to have that done every couple of years.  It depends on the horse how often this should be done, but consult your Vet if you're unsure.

And did you know that this Sunday the time changes?  I'm so excited I can barely contain myself!  Some people don't like that we loose an hour of sleep, but I love it because we gain an hour of day light.  That leaves plenty of time in the evening to take a decent trail ride.  So I'm looking forward to more evenings on the trail!  Spring is on its way!

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