I Just Had to Share

It was a good lesson, and a nice bareback ride on Tico afterwards out in the back field, where he saw a turkey and *didn't* over-react. More geese families were seen as well.

But this was the highlight of the day Silly Cinch:

To explain. I was bent over next to him picking out his hoof, when I heard "pop-pop-pop-pop-pop!" behind me. This was happening. My phone was in my back pocket. The rest is history.

Here are some of the geesies. I didn't get the cutest ones because I was riding bareback and didn't trust Tico to not decide to bolt:  two adults, the first one waddling over across a dirt road to the pond, right in front of us. It was followed by about 5 little fluffy babies. The other adult was still in the tall grass - we could see it's head and neck and part of it's body - but was just standing there... until the grass started rustling, and little gray heads popped up and out onto the dirt road, one by one...

You can actually see the dark heads of the other family we ran into on the other side of the pond, in front of the front-loader.

June 13th, 14th. Nice days...

Not too much happened... There was a lesson, there was riding, Cinch was a really good boy, so was Tico (though as usual, he was filthy...)

I'd bought a saddle pad liner to go under the saddle pads. It dries a lot more quickly than when you hose off a saddle pad - whether it be fleece or felt, those suckers take forever to dry.

The liner is about an 1/8th of an inch thick, and I could wish for it to be a bit longer on the sides, but still... so much easier to hose that off and just lay it in the sun for a few hours, than the days a saddle pad could take.

Anyway, I also dewormed the boys on Sunday. Cinch was fairly demonstrative in showing his opinion of the matter:

That lip stayed that way for a long time

I don't think it really tasted that bad, since they both accepted a Kashi bar offering immediately afterwards.  Some of the paste dewormers must taste like ass (or the horse equivalent, since they have no compunction about smelling poops, so maybe ass tastes good?). With some, they stand there, sniff the offering, and look away sadly. This was not one of those dewormers. 

On Sunday, After riding a bit in the back ring, I rode Cinch up the path to the gate going out to the back field. He was very looky and worried about it. We'll go out there at some point, but I think we'll have to work up to it.

Anyway, I did take Tico out into the back field again Sunday afternoon. As soon as we went into the field, he spied a turkey to our far right. It was pretty far away, and heading towards the trees. 

As we were watching, another one stood up (apparently he'd been crouching down in the tall grass), and scooted towards the trees as well.

And then another popped up, same thing.

Tico was a bit bug-eyed, but not too bad. We stood there and watched, waiting  to see if another was going to appear.

Finally I gave him a boot, he girded his loins, and we walked on. Warily, casting nervous glances over towards the trees, but we walked on.

We mostly just ambled over the fields, then over to the pond where the geese hang out. He looks at the geese, but more curious than as if they're going to grow fangs and attack. We watched a small family (the babies all fluffy-downy-cute) waddle over to the pond then glide into the water.

Heading back, I asked him to canter:

What a GLORIOUS Weekend!

What a great weekend it was! Beautiful warm weather, happy horses, just enough breeze to keep the bugs down. These are days when I realize I'm truly blessed.

 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.

Sunday, though he'd done his best to discourage my riding him by completely coating himself in dust and grime again (his tail suffered too, sadly), I rode Tico on a trail ride with Kathy and Roxie, her cute little Paso Fino. It was very hot (I think it hit the 90s) but we didn't do much else but walk. Well, we did a couple of canters on small but steep hills, but other than that, we ambled... or Tico ambled, Pasos do this little step-step-step-step gait, about 4 to Tico's every 1 step. It's very cute, sort of a tippy tippy tippy toes gait. Roxie is adorable.

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!

The New Saddle Arrives, Yeah!

Here it is before it got shipped to me:

Isn't it pretty?

I had to sit on it, adjust the stirrups, right? Yes, our cat is weird: he doesn't like boxes, but brown paper packaging is his favorite thing EVAH.


The next day, at the barn... and with the new Impact Gel pad Geoffrey got me for my birthday:

Cinch's tail is always moving. I used to take it personally, but he does it no matter what.

It's comfy, too!

Northeast Reining Horse Association Spring Spin, Part 3

Okay, I waited too long, and have forgotten quite a bit. :(

The high points:

1. It got warmer.

2. Given how sluggish Cinch had been in the class Saturday, I wore my spurs Sunday. He perked up, and we had good spins, and a good right roll back, no penalties.

3. I got a 64 in my last class (still a late lead change... Cinch and I have things to work on.) I'd promised myself that if I got a score better than 60 I would break down and buy a blingy belt. I'm still looking...

4. We all had fun. My barn mates all did well, the barn owner did really well with her two open horses, all the horses behaved very well, everyone was tired but upbeat.

5. Cinch and I kind of bonded, he's gotten a lot less mouthy with me and I think we can do this partners thing.

And, I'm looking forward to the July 4th weekend show; my goal being to get a better score again.

Northeast Reining Horse Association Spring Spin, Part 2

This one will be shorter. Mainly because I waited too long and I've forgotten a lot.

So... in order to ride in the show pen before the show started on Saturday, we had to be up, out of the motel room, and on our horses by around 6:30. That's AM. I'm not a morning person.

But, I managed it. It was a bit chaotic, since everyone else was doing the same thing at the same time, but we did it.

Then... we waited. My one class was likely not going to start until well into the afternoon. There were plenty of classes to watch, and my barn mates would be in a few of them, but it was a long cold morning. Really cold. Really, really cold.

Cinch and I got started warming up pretty early in the afternoon again, and I actually felt like he was getting a bit sluggish.  I mentioned this to Brian, but he said "Just wait until he's in the pen, he'll perk up."

This time, the barn owner lent me her chaps (I don't own a pair). I never thought they'd fit - she's tiny - but we managed to squeeze me into them. Yes, we - putting chaps on is like putting on a corset: you can do it yourself but it's easier with help. So I was dressed a bit like Johnny Cash meets the Village People: black shirt, black leather chaps over jeans, cowboy boots. My helmet is brown with black trim, so I wasn't completely coordinated, but it was definitely a look.

I guess Cinch didn't get a good night's sleep. I know I didn't; I was getting over a cold and still had the cough. I didn't want to wake my roomie up so I tried to hold them in... with mixed success. Also, apparently, I whimper in my sleep. My roomie said it actually made her feel like she was sharing the room with one of her dogs, who whimpers in his sleep too.  Still, a bit embarrassing

Anyway, he stayed lethargic in the pen... on the fast circles, Brian was yelling "kick him! kick him!" which I was doing, but he wasn't paying all that much attention. Also, I completely spaced on the second rollback: We stopped. I looked at the fence line, mind completely blank. Then, "oh yeah, rollback!"

That, plus a few more errors and a late lead change, got us a 54.

Another barn mate took my phone and recorded my ride for posterity. Here it is, warts and all:

And here, after our run, looking dazed and confused (and having just gotten my jacket back... did I mention it was cold?)

Northeast Reining Horse Association Spring Spin - Part 1

I survived my first reining show, and my first horse show of any kind in 20 years.

It was a blast - friendly, helpful people, and an atmosphere that would give a lot of horses the vapors: lots of dogs of all kinds, shapes and sizes, often loose but (usually) well behaved (no dog fights that I heard/saw, just wandering around visiting when the owners weren't paying attention), and kids on scooters and bikes zooming up and down the barn aisles, as people and horses passed in and out to and from the show pen or the practice areas.

The barn owner has a live-in trailer, and another rider brought a camper. The rest of us had doubled up for rooms at the Red Roof Inn, not too far away.

My goal for the show was to get a score. Period. To get a score, all I needed to do was to not deviate from the pattern designated for the class. I was entering 3 classes - Ladies and Gents (the first of the show, and pretty much a "practice" class for everyone), then Green Reiner II on Saturday and again on Sunday. Each class has a different pattern to memorize, though once you get the flow of them many of them don't differ by all that much - direction to start in, walk vs. trot  vs run into the pen to start, and typically 3 circles (different combos of large and small), spins, roll backs, and sliding stops. After you read/memorize a pattern, you start condensing them into the salient points or the differences:  for instance,"left, right, big, small, big" equates to "walk in, go to the middle facing the judge, spin 4 times to the left, stop, spin four times to the right, stop, start a big fast circle to the right (half the show pen), when you get back to the middle do a small slow circle to the right, then another big fast circle, change leads and make a big fast circle to the left and a small slow circle and then another big fast circle to the left, change leads, start a big circle to the right but don't complete it; instead go down the long side about 20 feet from the wall, pass the center, stop, do a left rollback, go around to the left long side about 20 feet from the wall, pass the center, stop, do a right rollback, continue around again to the right 20 feet from the wall, pass the center, sliding stop, and back up to the center."

That's Pattern 8, by the way. Which was the pattern for Ladies and Gents.

We got to the Eastern States Exposition showgrounds in Springfield on Thursday afternoon to unload the horses and all the tack/hay/grain/chairs/tables/food, etc. needed to support 7 horses and 5 non-pros plus a trainer for 3+ days. It was FREEZING. I'd brought a mid-weight jacket, a sweatshirt/hoodie, and a fleece top, and was wearing them all on top of a long sleeved shirt, and still shivering. We comforted ourselves that the forecast for the next couple of days was for warmer weather, at least in the 50s.

After 6PM the trainer rode Cinch in a paid warmup (you get 5 minutes in the show pen alone for each paid warmup), and since Cinch was pretty fresh, he rode him in another. This is kind of pitiful, but I actually can't remember if I got on him Thursday as well. :(

It was a long day, and my temporary roomie and I headed to the Red Roof to relax and get some sleep. We were planning an early morning - get on our horses by 6:30 AM in order to get used to riding in the show pen, since it would be available for a while before the show started to everyone.

Friday morning, I got on Cinch in the show pen for the first time. Since quite a few other riders were doing the same thing, there were rules about where you could circle in what direction, and for those who wanted to practice run-downs, a bunch would either call "fence" and line up at the end to wait for people to stop, or just time their runs to not disrupt the people circling. It actually worked pretty well.

It didn't get any warmer.

Back at the stalls, coolers were put on the horses, they were given more hay, stalls cleaned, floor swept, and people schmoozed while we waited to find out our draws (when we would do our run).  The Ladies class is actually run together with the Gents class, so the draws were mixed. I ended up being 39 out of 40, which made for a very long and cold wait. Still, the trainer wanted us warming up well before our draws, so I was in the practice ring as draw 27 started their run. We both got a bit sweaty by the time our draw rolled around. I thought Cinch seemed to be getting a bit tired, too.

We walked into the pen, and just as we're about to turn towards the judge, Cinch does one of his odd walking bucks, where he hitches his hind end up and tosses me a bit off-balance. Oh well, it is what it is... I smiled at the judge, and started our spins.

They were a bit lethargic... possibly because, though I hadn't thought I was very stressed, I completely forgot to cluck.  But we did the right number and ended up only a bit overspun.

Next was the circles. The big ones could have been a bit faster (the idea is that there should be a visible difference in speed) but we tracked around well.

Our lead changes needed work. Oh well, I did get them eventually.

For the run-downs, let's just say that Cinch woke up. As we came around the straightaway for the first rundown, he took off and I yelped. Well, actually I hollered. Okay, I yelled "WA-HOOOOO!" And when I asked for the stop, hoo-boy did he stop. Still a bit stunned, the roll back wasn't exactly picture perfect.

For the second one, I at least kept my mouth shut. Again, my rollback was lacking.

For the final run down and sliding stop, I pretty much resigned myself to a wild ride, and got it. The nice part was, it was probably the best stop I ever rode, and I didn't even brace against it and bounce on his back.

As I left the pen, people were still cracking up - apparently, a competitor yipping it up during a run isn't a common occurrence. My barn mates had told everyone watching that this was my first ever class, and people I didn't even know congratulated me. We all had grins on our faces.

And I got a score: 57! Yes, a perfect, no errors but nothing outstanding score is 70, but I didn't zero! I was pumped.

To be continued...