Tansitions

A snapshot of us working on our trot to lope transitions and directional changes through the middle of the arena. Photo courtesy of Lee Farren.

Tommy and The Curtain of Death

Over the weekend Tommy and I attended one of my mom's desensitizing clinics up in the mountains near Ukiah, OR. There were around ten people who came up to ride, and it was a lovely weekend - great hospitality, sunny weather, lovely ranch and arena, wonderful mountain scenery, and best of all GREAT food! What more could a clinic participant ask for?

The clinic was set up for people to work on "holes" that their horses have. (And believe me.... wether they are young or old, EVERYBODY'S horses have holes....) Tommy is still very young and has a ton of things that I haven't addressed yet, so this was a great clinic for him to attend. In my zeal and excitement to "just go riding" down the trail and sling my butt up into the saddle; I've neglected some sacking out exercises that are quite critical. One of them was the "curtain of death". A simple strip cut tarp that hangs over an entry gate. I've noticed in the past when I've rode him on forest trails he sometimes gets a bit ticklish when tree's brush against the saddle or my leg, or I have to push a low hanging branch out of the way when he go through the forest. Didn't think much of it, but well..... the curtain of death was a helping hand on that issue.

To start with, everybody's horses had trouble with it. (In fact, there was only one old dog broke gelding that really didn't care too much about it.) To begin with, we all led our horses through the curtain of death - which was a good safety thing. None of them besides the older gelding were ready to be ridden through it yet. Most horses blasted like rockets through it with their butts tucked up underneath of them like scalded dogs, and there were more than a few that locked up and absolutely refused to even start through it. Tommy made it halfway underneath of it, and then the motion above him scared the hell out of him and he ended up bucking the rest of the way through it. All that I could think of was - it was good that I wasn't in the saddle. But by the time that day two came to an end, we actually made the accomplishment of riding through the curtain of death in a calm and relaxed manner. YAY!!!!!!
Day one was focused on working on desensitizing tools. The first one was just getting the horses into the arena via the curatin of death. The second one was a plastic bag attached to the end of a stick.

This is where I have to get on my soapbox here...... a pet peeve of mine and one that makes me grit my teeth whenever I see it: witnessing people doing stupid liberty work - a.k.a. "chasing a horse around with a bag to make it run and act like a total idiot". Show people, (erh, should I say mostly arabian people?) are guilty as hell of this. They specifically train their horses to over-react to stuff like this. What happens when it's a windy day and a plastic bag blows up underneath your horses legs in the pasture? Or what heppens when you're riding your horse out on a trail and there is a plastic bag hanging off a fence or gate? What happens when someone wants to hand you your lunch that is wrapped in a plastic bag when you're out on a trail ride? Minor explosions and nervousness occur. I've witnessed liberty "chasing" in person, and seen more than one video of people getting their horses jacked up with plastic bags and rattling cans before they turn them loose into an arena to tear around like numbskulls in front of a big audience. What is the accomplishment in that...?

But anyway, stepping down off of the soapbox....the bag desensitizing exercise was great. I was able to get the bag up around Tommy's nose and face, and petted him down the neck on both sides with it. There was only one horse at the clinic that still couldn't be touched with the bag by the end of the day, but he was clearly much calmer and better about it being closer to him by the time the clinic was over. We also worked on dragging tarps around our horses and getting them used to stepping on them and walking all over on them. It was surprising to see some older horses that weren't too thrilled with it being dragged beside of them. Tommy didn't have a problem with a tarp being on the ground, he handled it like a pro. He just didn't like the tarp being elevated above him like how the curtain of death was.
Everybody worked with big plastic balls too. We kicked them away from the horses, and then rolled them back to their front legs. Some of the horses even tolerated them being gently bounced off of their hind legs. A well desensitized horse can handle having a huge ball bounced off of their butt and playing a game of basketball from the saddle. Tommy isn't quite there yet. He liked the ball and nibbled at it a couple of times and I was able to bounce it next to him and off of his front legs, but he wasn't ready for any hindquarters encounters yet. A lot of people in the general public have boredom play balls for their horses in the stall - but rarely play a zinging game of handball using the horses butt as the wall.
In the afternoon of day one we all had a group riding lesson to work on speed control and handling traffic. Nobody's horses were anxious or nervous about being in arena traffic, but there was one that was grumpy and didn't like being near the others. That rider spent time doing exercises to get him to not pin his ears so much when someone else rode up close to him. This traffic arena work was good practice for Tommy, because when we go out on endurance rides I don't want him tailgating other riders too closely, or else having a panic attack because he thinks that everybody else is leaving him.
Everybody worked on seeing how slowly they could make their horses walk and trot, and how fast they could get them to go without using their legs or reins. It's honestly a very hard thing to do to regulate your horses speed without using leg or rein aids when all you've got is your weight and sense of timing.
Trotting past the curtain of death. It was well worth the whole experience to be able to ride through that damed thing by the time the clinic was done! Although we won't be doing any extreme trail challenges any time soon, it was a huge accomplishment for Tommy to be able to calmly go through that.
Working on collection at the trot.
On the first day the flashy zinging little noisey pinwheels bothered him a little bit, (they were several of them positioned all over the arena), but he got very used to them by the time we were done.
Each one of us got an individual lesson at the lope (or canter). Some people had trouble controlling their speed - as their horses were wanting to go too fast and blast around the arena, while some other horses were wanting to be lazy in their transitions and just trot a million miles an hour to get into a lope. Everybody had different issues that they were working on. Some horses were very green and didn't know how to carry themselves at that speed very well and needed more help from their riders, while other horses were older and hadn't had the proper foundation in order to relax and smoothly lift off into a lope. Tommy's issue was in the middle. He had beautiful transitions and lift off along the rail and nailed each lead, but when we would come through the middle of the arena he would noodle around and look like a drunk sailor trying to decide which way to go. We clearly need to work more at that.
He's a lovely boy when he collects up. We worked on arcing the ribcage into the corners and keeping the shoulder out. A bit of "cowboy dressage", I guess.
On the second day there was an obstacle course out in the pasture that everybody rode through. There were tarps, logs, poles, barrels, and a big upside down trough looking thingy. We had to go in between two big telephone poles and back up the entire way out of it without touching the poles. Tommy nicked it the first time with his right hind due to my piloting error, so on the second time through we went very slowly step-by-step and made it straight back without touching either side.

It was a really nice weekend. There was more than one person who asked me what kind of horse that I was riding, because he looked so completely different from the other ones that were there. He got to experience camping in a strange place again, and also venturing out on a little Saturday night trail ride. Overall, it was a great experience for Tommy and I had a fun time too!

"Ak Towshan"

"Ak Towshan" - white rabbit in Turkmen.

A recent exercise in leatherwork. I'm still not the greatest at beveling and stamping yet....(and I suspect that my crappy ol' junk tools might have something to do with it). But practicing as much as possible helps. I made TONS of mistakes on this little 8 x 10 piece -and it certainly isn't my greatest work - but it was another experience to learn from. Gotta keep practicing a bunch more. Leather is a very difficult and unforgiving mistress to work with. I'm hoping to get better the longer that I keep plugging at it....

Another Mini Show Winner

Another mini wins big at a show! This is "Prada" owned by Brooke Smith of Cookeville, TN. She earned a Championship of Breed award in her stock horse class at Big Orange Bash Live. Pictured with her Champion ribbon and NAN card courtesy of Brooke. Thanks for sending the photo!

Mini Saddlebred Wins in California!

These are a few photos of a stablemate scale (3") grey saddlebred mare that I did a few years ago for Diane Keiter of California. (The photos are courtesy of Diane, thanks!) She recently took Overall Grand Champion at a mini show in California. I'm thrilled that this little gal is doing great for her owner! I'm makes me happy to know that the models coming out of my studio are being competitive and winning for customers who purchase them. I've heard good things, but rarely get pictures. Thanks Diane!

-Shannon.

Renegade Rendezvous 2011

Renegade rolled around again this year, and this time it came with some unexpected adventures - most of which were pretty good.

Two weeks prior to this ride I hadn't felt 100% percent health-wise. I was constantly dog tired, even after waking up from a good nights sleep. And dizzy a lot. Not a great outlook for a grueling weekend endurance ride. I had a doctors appointment on the 28th (tomorrow), but I thought that I could get through this ride on the weekend before the appointment without too much problems.
But unfortunately, on Saturday morning (the 25th) when I woke up in the trailer - I felt terrible. I almost fell down the stairs into the saddle rack. My husband, being the voice of reason that he is, knew that I wasn't going to ride that day, so he said we were going to the nearest urgent care facility in Yakima to get me checked. I was totally bummed out, to say the very least. (In fact, I cried a little when my friends weren't looking). It was very depressing for me to not be able to go and ride. I later found out after some blood testing and poking and prodding around, that my thyroids are a mess and there are some other health issues going on as well. This was supposed to be Tommy's first endurance experience, and I felt like I had dropped the ball a little bit. But - looking back on the total experience, it was probably for the best how things went. And everything turned out great as it was.

Both of the previous endurance rides that I had planned on attending this year were cancelled due to the equine herpes EHV1 outbreak. I was going to take Nettie and Tommy to Klickitat Trek before it was cancelled. The reason that Nettie was tagging along was for a new french rider Julie Villeneuve to pilot on her very first endurance ride. So, at Renegade Julie got her chance to try the sport out.

On Friday night everyone saddled up for a leisurely evening trail ride before the ride meeting. Wendy and Allie went out on a schooling ride ahead of the rest of us to work on keeping Allie calm without the group. Cathy on Galen and Julie on Nettie were the trusty trail leaders for the young half brothers Tommy and Danny, who Monica and I were piloting. Tommy had never rode in a group pack before, so it was really a good thing for him to experience. I had planned on taking him on some big group trail rides this year, but for one reason or another - it just didn't happen. He was pretty relaxed by the time we got back to ride camp from our little outing. (Although being in ride camp itself was a shockingly new experience for a young green horse too....)
He learned how to camp out at night, how to tolerate a good thorough groping at the vet check, crossed his first little wooden bridge on the Friday night ride, and found out that tents and strange dogs are freaky looking - yet do not wish to make a meal out of him after all...

Craig took this photo of us after the Friday night ride. Julie on Nettie and me on Tommy.

Nice and relaxed after the trail ride.

A photo of the half-brothers Danny (Magdan) and Tommy (Asil Tumay) in the Camp Leddy corrals. Both geldings are by Astrakhan. They look pretty similar in a lot of ways.

Monica with Danny's hoof boot. It was nice to get to talk with Monica quite a bit on Saturday as we were waiting for Cathy and Julie to come in from their ride.

Alex Rivas (in the red shirt) doing a great job as an in-check "pulser" for the riders.

Monica made a new friend. As we were waiting in the shade by the vet check, there would be campers dogs that would come over to our chairs and beg to be petted. This comical dog's name was Bailey, and she loved every minute of the belly scratching that Monica gave to her....

50 milers pulsing down and vetting in. It was actually a good experience for me to see what goes on at camp when Craig is waiting for me to come in. I've never had to crew for anybody before, nor have I ever had to wait around in camp. It was interesting to hear the stories and excitement of what was happening out on the trail - who made it and who didn't, who was missing a horse, and who got lost and had to back-track. Monica and I both felt like a nervous parents waiting for Cathy and Julie's safe arrival into the check. We would get up from our chairs and peer down the road everytime we heard the smallest noise....

And the two triumphant riders return!

I was very proud of Nettie for taking care of Julie. They only had one little incident at a mud bog that ended happily, so that was a relief. I asked Julie what she thought of the ride, and she said that she liked it a lot. Wahoo! That's what we want to hear. Another endurance rider is hooked..... =:)

The pulser looking Nettie over. He made an annoying comment about her being barefoot on the ride, but I've always been fiercely proud of all of my horses ability to handle rocky ground well. Last year when Octopelle did this ride, he had to go barefoot in the hinds for 25 of the 30 miles due to boot problems. Most people would've given up and headed back to camp, but we were able to keep going and complete the ride with flying colors. There is a reason that I leave my horses feet a bit long. I've heard of a few Tekes and crosses that have the reputation of being rather "weenie-footed" when it comes to going barefoot, so I've worked my butt off to toughen-up all of our's feet. Their hooves might be kind-of small, but they're very hard. Living in eastern Oregon has it's benefits sometimes. It's a good dry environment for growing strong iron-clad feet. Right now Tommy can trail ride barefooted down a gravel road without taking a mis-step. I still have some "molding" and shaping to do with his trimming, but he's coming along nicely.

Nettie has never needed hoof protection when I've ridden her at the endurance rides. The one and only time that I did put hoof boots on her - she came up lame. Go figure. I learned the hard way: "if it's not broken, don't try fixing it". Those ol' wild mustang bands have long hooves on the range for a reason.

Julie and Nettie vetted through with flying colors from Dr. Dick Root. I have a HUGE respect for Dick. Not only is he my favorite vet at the rides, he is also my favorite endurance rider/competitor. Remember "Rocky" the big drafter from the older blog posts? That's Dick's horse. Someday, if I ever get a good enough horse to keep up, I'd like to tag along with Dick on a 75. It would be good to talk with him.

Overall, Renegade this year was a good experience. Tommy got to go to his first endurance ride and get some exposure to new stuff, and Julie got to experience her first endurance ride as well. It was a good time for the most part.

-Shannon.

"MMR Sign N Deliver" a moderately customized Peter Stone ISH (Ideal Stock Horse) stallion in a chestnut semi-leopard appy pattern. Recently completed in my studio for Debbie Teeselink of Landers, CA.