Colours in my life

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Just enough spice

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Its been a rough go these last few weeks between a significant increase in work, brutal cold snaps, icy trails and skating rink parking lots. Ive only ridden a handful of times on those rare occasions where the universe converged. This has made for a spicy pony and while it makes me more prudent on how I engage in speed when the brakes are fairly absent, it also makes me super appreciative that this spicy horse does keep his excitement under wraps most of the time. Clearly Q is fit and feeling good, and his daily turnout with bestie Chester is absolutely insufficient in expending energy. Especially since these two lazybouts just stand in a corner watching the world go by.  We went out today after a little snow fell to cover our thick ice. Footing was good, and it was our first outing in over 10 days. The strategy is always the same: long steady trots for 5-10 mins until Q starts relaxing and blowing through his nose in loud bursts. During the first stretch we kept on trotting throu...
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New Goal ... Canter Distance

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Annual Trail Rides 133/200 (Bareback 7/12) These last two years I put some focused effort on cantering more, more often and with more variations in pace. My trips and rides abroad taught me that I was riding way too conservatively on my baby green Q.  Once that mindset shifted, I realized that the precision of my canter transitions left much to be desired. Q didnt always take the lead I requested, and I was sloppy about precision half the time ... Meaning if he didn’t take the right lead I didn't correct it. To be fair, in our first year or two of riding, Q would get supremely defensive and uptight if I micromanaged him. Since then Ive toned down the speed and harshness of my corrections, and he has become more agreeable to being corrected. Lots of “good boy”, neck pats, and letting go, make up for my occasional mistakes. Last year we made great progress on our canter transitions which have become smooth and accurate 90% of the time. I still get sloppy about correcting mistakes, so...
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When your horse makes a "mistake". Part 2

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There was an accident on the trail yesterday and the rider was taken away by an ambulance. The horse tripped, got caught in the reins, panicked, the rider fell, and then the horse fell on her. The ambulance was able to drive down the trail in a special AWD vehicle and retrieve the rider that has probably broken her leg. We are still waiting for confirmation. It was a freak incident. Rider and horse are well tuned trail horses and have lots of miles under their belt. But accidents happen. So what did the horse do? The mare stood stock still next to its owner until help came. Friends and family made it to the trail section of the incident and walked the mare home while the owner got loaded in the ambulance to then spend several hours at the hospital getting x-rays. Clearly this wasn't a "mistake". But I thought I would spend some time thinking about the "correct answer" before I deep dive into the land of errors, snafus, and miscommunications. Having sta...
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When your horse makes a “mistake”. Part 1

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The breeder told me many years ago that I would have to be very consistent with drawing the line on acceptable behaviour as my Q was a sneaky cheeky foal that would take advantage of me very quickly. Being smart and dominant, this could be a slippery slope. Four years later I can absolutely confirm that he is a cheeky fellow, but also adorable and charming ... so it’s easy to let the lines blur. A beautiful stretch for a canter He is also a pleaser, and he tries really hard to figure out what I want and give it to me before I ask. He has allowed me short cuts in training that I never imagined possible and he has bolstered my confidence like no other horse before him. He also makes a ton of mistakes. Most of the time he would not consider them “mistakes” (he is the benevolent king after all, and does not admit to mistakes lightly), but just testing the lines of yes/no. They are not mistakes for him, he just thought my request wasn’t serious and he wanted to offer another optio...
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Canter fail, again

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Every time I think Ive “got this”, Im proven wrong. In my defense, Q was so full of himself that he tried to balk and tell me that the trails were not safe today by shying at the trail entrance. I saw him coming, so I growled, leg on, and got ready for the 180 degree spin. That was the first time he did that, but my previous horse Jazz taught me everything I know about this stupid trick and it is SO much easier to nip these in the bud early on. Once in the woods he calmed down, but he was very very forward. Alone I had control, but once we met with B and started cantering all hope for control was gone. There was no cantaloping happening today. Even at a trot he was bouncy bouncy bouncy. Again, to his defense, his buddy Shadow was also high as a kite shying and spooking at every little twig on the ground which is not so amusing at a canter. So today we lunge, and then we ride solo on the trails and we trot and canter as much as we can. Footing should be good, and the weather is going to...
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