Line in the sand

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“Time is like a river made up of the events which happen, and a violent stream; for as soon as a thing has been seen, it is carried away, and another comes in its place, and this will be carried away too.”

- Marcus Aurelius






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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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Teeter-totter through more groundwork

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After my “aha” moments of the week, I decided to venture out to the barn and tackle some tarps and stuff. My tools for the day - Flag - Tarp - Rope halter - Patience Q was not too impressed with my plan. Thanks, but no thanks. I got the snort, the scoot and the jump to the back of the stall when he saw the tarp coming. So by the time I had him in the aisle with his halter on, he was less surprised by their appearance. But he still shrinked away. Then we got into the arena, Q giving the tarp and flag a wide berth until I asked him to approach. You can see how tentative he is. This continued for a while but we eventually graduated to walking and trotting both directions, alternating with some flag work and poll release. I then wanted to get a halt on the tarp, as I believe that the horse doesn't truly "own" the obstacle until he is capable of standing relaxed on the object. It took a few turns, and then he was able to do it. He did struggle with ba...
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