I rode Cinch Saturday outside in the back ring (he was just a star, I love that big red boy!) and then gave Tico the beauty treatment, knowing that it wouldn't last a day but wanting to at least get some of the winter stickies and stains out. They both got to go out for a bit afterwards on the lead line to feast on the choice grass outside the paddocks.
Saturday was the "official" lesson with our trainer Bryan, Angel and T-Man joining us as usual. The lesson was outside in the back ring, the weather sunny and hot but with a nice breeze.
Angel had been struggling with getting her boy T-Man to spin, especially in one direction, and mostly because she'd hurt her knee and didn't really have a lot of lateral strength on that side. Bryan suggested she wear spurs; she hadn't been up until now. She had a selection to choose from, spurs she'd collected over the years; she chose the most mild pair to use since T-Man doesn't really need a big go button, just a stronger cue for the spins.
I'd been having issues with Cinch anticipating a change of gait - mostly wanting to trot or canter after a transition down, and not wanting to walk.
Bryan suggested that the second Cinch tried to move faster than I wanted him to go, or if I felt him start his weird rear-end hop (Angel said it's like he has the gait version of Tourette's) that I take up contact and push him forward and to one side with steady leg pressure. When he relaxed, I should loosen the reins, relax my leg, and let him walk forward. If he started trotting or doing his Tourette's move again, repeat as often as was needed the contact/push/wait for relax until Cinch walked forward calmly.
As he said, this wouldn't be an instant fix, but if I am consistent about it, I should be able to a) get him to move forward when I ask, not when he anticipates; and b) hopefully get him out of that weird hop habit.
The thing I love about working with Bryan is that if he sees problems, instead of just telling you to fix it, he thinks about it, then tells you *how* to fix it in a way that's not a reaction... it's a "make him do something else instead."
So, instead of my doing an abrupt check with the reins, I ask Cinch to do something else, not what he wants to do or thinks I want him to do, and then release the pressure when he relaxes. Replacing, rather than reacting to, the undesired behavior.
And it's working.
So, out in the back ring, Cinch was an angel. He did everything I asked of him willingly, though I did have to do the "don't anticipate" exercise a couple of times. We did circles, rectangles, and (my favorite because he's just so damned good at it) spins. He was perfect.
Meanwhile Angel was doing the same at the other end of the ring. T-Man was being his usual wonderful self - and he has such beautiful stops, it's just a pleasure to watch.
Angel set him up to do spins, with Bryan giving her pointers about how she needed to hold herself and her reins.
T-Man spun his little heart out. Without any spurs touching him. Angel said it was really interesting: because she was more away of her leg placement because of the spurs, she was holding them differently, with her toes a bit in front of her knees... and her knee wasn't hurting. And apparently T-Man was more aware of them too. Sometimes it just takes wearing them.
Less than a half hour into our lesson, we decided that there was no need to work them in the heat any longer; they'd done exactly what we asked, and we got off.
Neither one had lathered up, so they got their tack stripped off, bug spray topped off, masks put on, and taken for "the good grass" just outside the door, by the front ring. Good boys!
Once I finished with Cinch, it was Tico's turn for some attention.
I pulled him in from his paddock, where he'd again indulged in a dirt bath. His whole body was coated, with some muddy spots where he'd sweated. I scraped off some of the dirt with brush and rubber mitt, then took him for a bath. It had to be a cold-water one - the last time I took him to where hotter water was available, he flipped out and broke his halter. But it was a hot day, I knew he'd be fine.
I scrubbed him, soap and water, and gave his tail an extra shampoo. I still wasn't able to get the manure stain off his leg, and I missed a couple of spots on his tail - his tail is so thick that just getting the whole thing wet is difficult; often I think I've really given the bone a good scrub, only to find that if I dig in deep enough there's a section still brown with dirt, with dark dirt dandruff flakes.
I know I'm a little obsessive about his tail. He really is a giant My Little Pony and it's so beautiful when it's clean... I can't help myself.
Anyway, after washing it, I wanted to condition it with coconut oil. I was going to oil it up, leave it in, then rinse it out after 20-30 minutes.
One thing I hadn't really considered: coconut oil solidifies when it gets cold. It ended up being wash it out rather than rinse it out, and there still was quite a bit of oil on his tail.
But wow, did it sparkle!
Though I still hadn't gotten all the dirt out:
While he dried, I took him out to feast on the good grass as well... it was a good day to be my horses.
I knew that the tail - and the rest of him - would be totally disgusting by Sunday, but at least it had looked nice for a little while.
I'd only scraped off the top layer of dirt, so when we got back the sweat was running brown/black off his back. So he got hosed down - I didn't bother with shampoo today - then taken for grass for a bit. The saddle pad was so disgusting, I had to hose that off as well.
Before scraping the top layer off:
Sigh.
Frani, he needs to go on a diet...
It was now around 12:30 and very hot. I thought I'd wait a bit before tacking Cinch up, so started walking up towards the front tack room, where there was a fridge and I'd put a bottle of water.
Frani was just getting ready to get on Astro. As an aside, Astro is one of the cutest palominos on the planet, and he has a shooting star brand which for some reason zooms the cute into the stratosphere.
This is Frani on her filly CC in the background, and Bryan sitting on Astro. Isn't he adorable? Look at that brand!!
I asked her if she was going to ride in the indoor or outside - it really was pretty hot outside - and she said she wasn't sure. But Bryan and Jenny (his significant other) said it wasn't that bad, there was a nice breeze... and why don't I go tack up Cinch.
Oddly, it didn't take much to convince me. :) I gave him a quick brush, threw the saddle on, and we headed on back.
I have to say: when I first bought Cinch, I had my misgivings. He was about the mouthiest thing I've ever had to deal with, and it was actually exhausting dodging his attempts to grab my clothes, his blanket, his bridle, his halter, whatever came within a couple of feet of his head. Also, we didn't seem to be meshing at all when I was riding him - there were times I actually thought he hated me. There were instances of bucking, there was that little weird rear end hop, and he was constantly swishing his tail. It was all somewhat disheartening.
I tried a few tack changes: I got different pads, a longer girth, ordered a new saddle. The new, longer girth seemed to make a bit of a difference, and a pad that was fleece rather than wool felt where he had some rubs on his flank (he'd been clipped fairly short, and the pads were rubbing him there and wearing what hair was there right off) helped as well.
But where I think we had a turn-around was at the show: he saw that I was there every day, spent time with him, and was *his* human... I noticed the mouthiness getting less and less, I could actually stand next to him, rub his face, his neck, and he stood still and seemed to enjoy it.
Back to Sunday: I headed back to meet up with Frani, Bryan and Jenny in the back ring. I could see them all under the one little tree giving any shade - even Frani on Astro.
As I rode up, I joked to Frani that I noticed she and Astro were under the tree out of the sun. She laughed, and I moved Cinch in next to Astro. We shared a few minutes of just shooting the breeze; kidding each other, enjoying the day.
The sun went behind a cloud for a second, and we took that as our cue for getting started. Frani'd already gone one direction, so worked on the other at the one end, while I rode at the other. We took another short break, then Frani went out to do some rectangles, Cinch and I staying under the tree to watch.
Astro was a star - Frani's been working on keeping him from taking off out of the corner (a common problem with reiners) by using Bryan's suggestion of turning him into a circle if he got too fast. Another suggestion was just work on steering - something Cinch and I do as well. It all works towards getting the horse to wait for you to ask, not to assume. Good stuff.
Once Frani and Astro were finished, it was our turn.
With Cinch, my problem is that he starts getting fast when we're going down the long side in a rectangle (anticipating a sliding stop.) Bryan's fix is to turn him into a circle as soon as it happens, no matter where in the line we are; it slows him down and then we continue the line after he's circled and lost his momentum. This is light years away from a previous trainer's instruction of "check him, check him harder, sit him down", which, knowing no better, I tried to do. Gee, maybe that had something to do with Cinch's antipathy towards me. Sigh
Anyway, we worked on this a few times. My position was messing us up there - instead of leaning back I was leaning forward into the circles, when meant speed up to Cinch. We did some zippy circles, before I got my position under control, sitting back and helping him to slow.
Bryan's explanation is: if you sit forward, the horse has to go faster to keep you under him. Sit back, he slows down. Makes sense.
While I was working on my rectangles, Jenny called out "Sue, do you want some ice cream?" Oh yeah. Ice cream was pretty much my idea of heaven at that point - I mentioned it was hot? I didn't even care what flavor, and couldn't even remember what was my favorite - I guess my head was cooking in my helmet. I came up with chocolate chip, and hollered it over my shoulder. Jenny thought I said mint chocolate chip, so repeated that to me. Mint chocolate chip sounded wonderful! I swung around again, yelling "Yeah!! Thanks!"
This time we worked up a good sweat. Cinch got hosed off (he has nothing against the warm water wash stall) and I was going to wash him (really) but then the ice cream arrived. I tied him in his stall and had my ice cream. It was delicious. And then I remembered my favorite flavor was coffee oreo cookie... but mint chocolate chip was just fine.
Bad mom, I know.
When I was done - ok, we sat in the tack room for a bit longer, gabbing - I woke Cinch up from his doze, put his fly mask on and coated him with bug spray again, and led him outside to feast some more.
Tico was giving me the sad eyes.
But Elizabeth and her daughter had just arrived, and Sydney loves playing with Tico - I asked her if she would take him out for grass, and she was more than happy. She also brushed him, brushed his tail (yes, he's a giant My Little Pony), braided it, and pretty much slathered him with attention. He ate it up. Of course, equal amounts of Kashi Pumpkin Spice bars and carrots had to be spread between them, but he'd gotten attention from two people so he was ahead of the game.
I know he counts coup.
Love my boys!
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