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!

The Rolex

It's been a minute since I've posted, but the main reason was that I went and took a horsey vacation to Lexington, KY at the end of April.  For those Eventing fans out there, you know that this is Rolex time.  For those of you unfamiliar with the Rolex, it is the Kentucky 3 Day Event which is sponsored by Rolex.  Apparently, according to the announcer at the stadium, it is one of the only sporting events known as its sponsor's name.  So for my non-horse constituents out there, 3 day eventing is the triathlon of the equestrian world.  Day one is dressage, day 2 is cross country, and day 3 is stadium jumping.  These 3 days are grueling for both the horse and rider and it is the ultimate challenge in the horse world.  To up the ante this year, its an Olympic year and the Rolex is a qualifier.  If you are an American rider you are doing everything you can to finish this event and finish well.
At the start of the event there were 57 horse and rider teams, an all time high for the Rolex, and only 27 made it to the final day of stadium jumping.  The cross country course was the equalizer.  Some of the top riders and horses like Karen O'Connor on Victoria and my personal favorite Becky Holder and Courageous Comet didn't make it through.  It was heartbreaking... But, I did find a new favorite, Boyd Martin on Otis Barbotiere, simply known as Otis.  Great name and a beautiful mover.  He caught my eye in dressage

See, isn't he hansom? Otis is a 10 year old French-Bred Selle Francais and this was his first four star event.  He is supposed to be a great prospect for the future, but this guy finished 3rd.  Pretty amazing...

Other big names that were there included William Fox-Pitt who is Britain's super star eventer on Parklane Hawk as well as Phillip Dutton with Fernhill Eagle and Mighty Nice, Andrew Nicholson on Calico Joe, and Michael Pollard on Icarus.

It was an amazing 3 days, I highly recommend this event to any horse enthusiast.  Day 1 is a little slower because it is dressage, but if you rent the headphones, you get to hear some great commentary on how this event is judged.  It makes it much more interesting because you can really see the difference between the good horses and the great horses.  Day 2, cross country day, is always exciting.  We got to see 2 great wrecks including Karen O'Connor's fall on Victoria and several refusals.  The cross country track starts and finishes in the same spot and is 4 miles long.  So, you get to walk all over the course and see different jumps from different angles, it really is amazing.  On day 3 you are back in the stadium, and rent those headphones again for commentary.  But you are literally on the edge of your seat urging each horse over the jumps.  Or maybe hoping for a dropped rail here and there...  It was wonderful and I hope to make it back in future years.  It has also inspired me, I would love to get into eventing.  So, once I graduate in July, I'm going to start some dressage lessons and go from there.  Who knows, maybe we can make an eventer out of Chief...

I got some great pictures from the weekend, scroll through them:

William Fox-Pitt on Parklane Hawk.  Parklane Hawk 16.3 Hand New Zealand bred Thoroughbred.  He was a former race horse that wasn't fast enough... but he can jump!  They finished in 1st place.

 Phillip Dutton on Mighty Nice.  Mighty Nice is a 17.1 hand Irish Sport Horse.  They finished 10th

Andrew Nicholson on Calico Joe a 16.2 hand English-Bred Thoroughbred.  They retired shortly after jump 5 on the cross country course.

Karen O'Connor on Veronica a 16.1 hand Dutch Warmblood.  As you can see Karen has lost her stirrup, the horse took the next jump and she fell, they were then eliminated.

Becky Holder on Courageous Comet a 16.2 hand Thoroughbred.  They had a refusal on the Normandy Banks jump and Becky came off and they were eliminated.

Becky Holder this time on Can't Fire Me, Courageous Comet's brother.  Can't Fire Me is a 16.3 hand Thoroughbred as well.  You can see in this picture the cut on his right leg.  The judges held him for inspection and determined he was unable to continue.  I told you it was a rough course...He was okay though, no serious injury.

Allison Springer on Arthur a 16.1 hand U.S. Bred Irish Sport Horse.  They finished 2nd.

Boyd Martin on Otis, they stumbled hard after this jump, but recovered nicely and finished 3rd overall.

Otis in stadium jumping on day 3

Allison Springer on Arthur

Kate Brown on Mojito.  Another great name, Mojito is a 17.2 hand Argentinean Warmblood cross.  They finished 22nd overall.

So those are just a few of my favorite shots... But, if you want to see the full results or investigate attending next year, check out their website at www.rk3de.org.  

Also, recently NBC did a great piece on Boyd Martin and another one of his horses Neville Bardos, you can check that out here:  http://video.msnbc.msn.com/rock-center/47364509#47364509

Now, are you ready for the Olympics? I know I am!  I believe they pick the team in June so keep an eye out for the official team.

Good Reads

So this past weekend Chief and I hit the trail, I must say though it was pretty darn cold.  That's right early spring came and slapped us in the face this weekend with lows in the 40's and highs in the 60's.  Yes, this is cold to a born and raised Southerner like myself.  So I broke out the cold weather gear for this ride.  Despite the cold, it was beautiful out, sunny with white puffy clouds, see:

Looks like it's fake doesn't it?  Well its not and I took it with my iphone!  That piece of technology never ceases to amaze me.  But that is Chief and his handsome self!  We then took to the trails and even though it was cold, the Mountain Laurel is coming out.  If you've never been to Tennessee in the spring, you are missing out.

Mountain Laurel is this pretty white flowering bush and it grows wild in Tennessee and usually covers the hillsides.  Gorgeous in the spring...

Our route this time was the New, New Trail connecting to the Workout Trail connecting to the Rocky Top Trail a.k.a. Indian Rocks down to the gravel road and back via the Creeks Trail.  All in all it was another 1 1/2 hours to add to my Ride America log with the APHA.  Not bad for a cold Sunday.

Ever since about a month ago, Chief and I have really been working on picking up the correct lead.  So every time I ask for a canter, I ask for either the left or right lead, if he picks it up correctly, he gets lots of praise.  If he gets it wrong, I slow him down to a trot and ask again, and again, until he gets it right.  Before I was using solely leg commands but I've found that turning his head to the opposite of the lead I'm asking for, he picks it up better.  So if I ask for the right lead, I turn his head to the left.  Today I stumbled upon a great article about teaching correct leads and decided it would be an easy thing to put into practice.  Check it out:http://americashorsedaily.com/lead-on/.  This comes from the American Quarter Horse Association.  My Mother-in-Law has a Quarter Horse so I follow them on Facebook as well as the APHA for lots of good articles and information.

Lastly for this week, I wanted to let you know I am going on a horse vacation later this week.  We are going to the Rolex!  By "we" I mean my husband and I, Chief and I definitely aren't ready for that yet.  But, I found a great blog post about the Rolex today too: http://eventingnation.com/home/confessions-of-a-first-time-rolex-owner.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=confessions-of-a-first-time-rolex-owner.  I love Reggie's Rules at the end.  Chief also abides by those rules!  I typically root for Becky Holder and Courageous Comet but Rafferty's Rules and Sharon White will have to be added to the list of those to watch.  I'll be sure to share photos from this weekend's events.

Til then!

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!

Spring Cleaning!

Okay, I'm guilty, it's been nearly a month since I've written.  All I can say is I've been out on the trails!  The weather down south has been beautiful and I've been taking advantage of it.  Until Sunday anyways... I went out for a nice little ride through the cow pasture but as we came down around the tomato field, I felt like we had a flat tire.  I jumped off hoping it was just a big rock, I've had that happen at this exact spot before and this time I had a hoof pick with me.  But, as I picked up Chief's right front foot I saw the problem... we pulled a shoe.  Damnit!  We had just gone through some really thick mud and sure enough the mud pulled the shoe right off.  So we headed back to the barn.  The unfortunate part of our current location was that the shortest route back to the barn was via the gravel road... not so great for a bare foot.  So we tried to walk next to the road and headed for home.

Once I got there I decided now would be a great time to do some spring cleaning.  My husband was out riding the motorcycle so I had some time where I wouldn't be missed and after all it is spring.  I started with my locker and cleaned out EVERYTHING.  I threw away old antibiotics that expired in 2009, why do I have that?  I can't even remember giving this to Chief... And I threw away an old helmet box, and various other things that I really can't remember how I ended up with them.  I then found Chief's blanket and threw it in the back of the car, doubt we'll need this again to the winter so it needs to be washed.  And I took home a dirty fly mask in need of washing too.  Then I put everything all back together again.  I felt so much better!  Next week I'll clean tack; that is a whole other task....  On the way home I found a great laundry mat in Soddy (I live in a burb of Chattanooga called Soddy Daisy, yeah that's right).  They have drop off laundry services!  How wonderful!  Last year when I washed this blanket I used my own washer and it didn't really get clean so I dropped that off and I will get it back today, can't wait!  The point of all this is, I encourage you to clean out your tack locker/box at least once a year.  You certainly don't need antibiotics that expired three years ago.  Keep the things that are still usable but definitly purge the things that are expired or just gungky nasty looking (don't lie we all have those). 

And, since I've been out on the trails, I've taken a few pictures.  I'll post a few for your viewing pleasure.

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!

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!