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My 2 Mares were stars on Trail today!

331K views 5K replies 68 participants last post by  Slave2Ponies 
#1 ·
For quite awhile now, I've been wanting to be able to confidently ride my mare out on the trail (many of you were very helpful after my questionable first foray onto the trails earlier this spring...)

Today the BM and a couple of other women were heading out to explore some trails that we've recently been given permission to use, and asked if Isabel and I wanted to join. Figuring going out in a group of her pasturemates would be a great way to test the waters, I eagerly said yes- and she was GREAT!! I couldn't be happier. We rode for about an hour, and she encountered a lot. She rode across a big open hay field, through wooded trails, up steep inclines and down the other side, crossed the road (twice), through a parking lot with people honking and waving at us, past someone carrying a giant patio umbrella, and back across a hay field with mowers going and guys throwing tarps over other equipment. Never once did she look at anything funny, balk, shy, nothing. I'm so proud of her! :D

There were two things that we can clearly improve next:
1. It was hard to hold her back from riding over the horse in front of her. She was pretty happy to be 2nd in line, because the leader was moving at a good pace (this was all walking...), but she didn't like being 3rd or 4th behind the pokier mares. These are all buddies, so it wasn't a problem this time, but obviously not good etiquette.
2. Relatedly, she was very heavy on my hands and was chomping away at the bit (literally) the whole time I was trying to hold her back from riding up on the horse in front of her. I didn't like hauling on her mouth, but I didn't feel like there was much else I could do. So will need a lot of work on that.

I'm not sure I'm ready to say I'm 100% confident yet that I can ride her out alone, but it was so wonderful to have this experience today and know that it is pretty reasonable to expect eventually I can get her there. It was just a huge confidence booster all around- and a ton of fun. SOOOOOO much more fun than riding laps around the arena! Can't wait for our next ride!

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#2 ·
Congrats! There's not much else that can put a grin on your face than a real good ride on the trails. You know its right when you don't want to come back into the barn :)

Does your mare behave the same way concerning the bit in the arena, and with other horses in the arena? I'm not sure of her history, but this is just my experience with my horse... he was ridden hard as a barrel horse in his younger years in a HUGE bit. He was with this person from the time he was 2 til 7. Then his previous owner bought him and had him for 8 months, had him sent to a trainer, and rode him in a D ring snaffle. His long time owner was AMAZED he could be ridden, and stopped in a snaffle. I've had him just over a month now, and one day I decided to try him in a side pull in the arena of course... a much different horse. He was so much more relaxed and actually halted and listened to my cues much better than even a snaffle bit. I'm not saying this is the case with every horse but if she is uncomfortable, things are worth trying to see if she is happier!
 
#3 ·
Atomic, you're totally right, I had a huge grin on my face and my husband had to listen to the minute-by-minute account over dinner ;) He was happy for me, but I figure you all "get it" in a way he doesn't...

Anyway, as for the bit, she goes in a simple dee ring snaffle and always has since I've had her. She doesn't usually grab on to the bit in this kind of tug-of-war. She can be a pretty forward little mare, but we don't typically "argue" about it. I think mostly she was just feeling good and excited to be out, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Just want her to be a little more responsive to backing off the horse in front of her.

I was happy with her when we headed for home though, she didn't get any worse or any stronger. I was able to turn her away from the barn and ride back out down the driveway before making her whoa one last time, and she listened well to that without trying to run for the barn, so I thought that was a positive note to end on.
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#4 ·
We had a great weekend of trail riding adventures. We started Friday night by actually heading out alone. I was not sure how this would go, as in the past when I've tried to take Izzy out alone, she'll quickly realize no one else is around and start doing this annoying thing where she swings her entire body in one circular motion to try to get pointing home. She doesn't bolt, she doesn't rear, but she just leans her entire weight around so that I can't physically pull her back straight or disengage her hind end to prevent it.

-BUT- happy to say, she did not do any of that nonsense at all. We marched down the driveway, crossed the road, and walked calmly across the hay field. Since I know part of the problems with trail riding alone are my own nervousness, I set a pretty modest goal for us- it was simply to ride across the road, across the field, and do a little trotting at an old outdoor sand ring that is probably 1/4 mile, if that, away from the barn. She was so good and calm with that, I decided to actually make things a little more challenging and ride past the ring into the woods on the trail. She was a little more hesitant there, as it had rained pretty hard last week and there were lots of really thick mud spots, which she generally doesn't like. But, she listened, rode as far as I wanted to until we got to a clearing, and then turned around to head back. She was a little quick going home, so we did some circling and changes of direction, but even though her walk was a little jiggy, she was generally ok.

Saturday we went back out with a group, and it's been interesting to see how she does in various positions in line. She definitely likes to be near or on the lead. She did well when she was 1st or 2nd (of 4), but she was miserable when she was 3rd- pulling and pulling so much and running up on the horse in front of her. We really need to work on this, because I couldn't find anything that helped her slow down and back off that horse, and eventually just had to ask to go past. I felt like I was just sawing away at the reins, which I hate. But there was nothing else that would get her to slow down (though hauling on the reins wasn't effective either).

I would love advice about getting her more relaxed and responsive when not allowed to be in or near the lead.

Finally, a couple of pictures!

Trying to work on patience while #3 in line (she's the little bay)


Treats! She was helping me take some pictures we would use to promote a "movie night" at the barn, so I got some cute ones of her with her nose in a big bowl of popcorn (get it, horses + popcorn=barn movie night ;)) She wasn't quite sure about the popcorn, but she looked funny playing with it.



 
#5 ·
Had a so-so ride out today. I did my usual 30 minute ride in the arena to warm up, and then headed out. Another horse came into the arena for schooling right as we were walking out, and he started calling to Izzy as we were riding down the driveway. I was impressed that she didn't call back and didn't hesitate walking off the property even with him calling to her. So that was good.

We headed across the street, and she gave me a little "I don't really want to do this" pause as we walked through the gate to the big hay field. Still, she went forward with just firm legs, so again, that was good.

We got out into the field, and she was a little gawky looking around at the haying equipment and pickup parked out there. But this is where I felt that the ride didn't go great. She hasn't done this to me in probably a year, but last year when I was feeling really down about the possibility of her ever being a trail horse, she used to do this annoying thing to me in open fields where she'd bulge her right shoulder around in this spin-type move to pull us around 180 degrees so we'd be facing home. And then when I tried to turn her around, she'd just keep spinning around. OK, so today, this wasn't as extreme, maybe I'm more confident or maybe she is (probably me) but I could feel her taking baby steps to trying to pull this maneuver. I kind of wish someone had been filming because I'd actually love to see what it really looks like, but here's what it feels like it looks like:

1. We are walking straight, and gradually I feel her start to get twisted with the front half of her body.
2. As she gets twisted, she snakes her head/neck/shoulders around to the left (her head gets so cocked around, it's almost like she's doing a one-rein stop- but I'm not asking her to do that)
3. As she gets her head all twisted, she bulges out her right shoulder dramatically and you can feel her really shift her weight to the right (like her energy is really coiled in that front right shoulder).

In the PAST, what would happen is that I would try to get her to straighten up by using the right rein to ask her to bring her head back around. I think that was sort of the opening she was looking for, because she'd quickly go from being hyper flexed left to saying, oh thank you for opening that door, you want to pull me right, I'm going to REALLLLLY go right and basically put all my power into spinning around that right shoulder and turning back towards home. She doesn't spin around and bolt, she spins around and continues walking along as though she was asked for a quick turn, which obviously she wasn't.

So, I have no idea if this is some kind of evasion move that people could put a name to, but it's really pretty annoying. For whatever reason today, when she tried to do this, my reaction was not to try to pull her around to the right, but rather to keep firm leg on her right side so there was really no way to spin around, and do more of a gradual tickle on the right rein to get her to straighten out. Does that make sense? It seemed to work ok, we never got to the point where she could lurch her body around to head back home. But curious if anyone has any thoughts about this and what I could do?

The footing was really terrible as we've gotten drenching rain the past couple of days, so I didn't really do much more than ride the perimeter of the hay field, but it's been great to have these short outings alone to continue to build confidence.

At the end of the ride when we do turn around to head back, I don't like that she's still so fixated on getting home that she gets really prancy at the walk, but so far she does listen enough to technically stay at the walk. I make it a point not to just ride a straight line home, we do lots of loops and circling around bushes or other random objects. It seems to make her pretty annoyed, but I feel like right now it's a level of "annoyed" that I can still make my point and be safe doing it. Any other tips?
 
#6 ·
In the PAST, what would happen is that I would try to get her to straighten up by using the right rein to ask her to bring her head back around. I think that was sort of the opening she was looking for, because she'd quickly go from being hyper flexed left to saying, oh thank you for opening that door, you want to pull me right, I'm going to REALLLLLY go right and basically put all my power into spinning around that right shoulder and turning back towards home. She doesn't spin around and bolt, she spins around and continues walking along as though she was asked for a quick turn, which obviously she wasn't.

Lacey would do the same thing!!
With her, the trick ended up being just riding her forward. Giving her a solid kick [or a smack with the crop if a kick didn't work] seemed to do the trick if she managed to get her head around. Of course, there were sticky spots [she had specific spots where she believed we "needed" to head home] but I realized that mostly it was MY fault. I'd get so "oh this is a lovely trail!" and she'd do her head thing as a sort of "hey! I'm here too, buddy!"
If I stayed conscious as a rider, kept her impulsion up, I found she would rarely even try. The minute I let her get ploddy, the more she'd start taking charge of the ride and swing her head around.

With the trying to lead/getting prancy, if she's anything like Lacey, it's just her inexperience showing. Lacey felt safest when she was leading so, as a green trail horse, I generally let her lead [I suppose it's something like being backseat driver? haha She wasn't sure the horse in front could handle whatever might happen, but she knew she could handle it better. :lol:] since she was a perfect ride in the lead and the people I'd generally ride with loved not having to worry about leading.
As she gained more experience on the trail, she became fine anywhere in line - no fighting [actually, she got SO comfortable that getting her going, in company, became an issue hahaha]. My only guess is that, at first, she wanted to see the scary stuff first and didn't like feeling blocked in. Later on, she realized that she wasn't missing much so she might as well take the easy job. :lol:
Same with prancing - it's something that just went away as she gained confidence on the trail. In Lacey's case, prancing directly correlated to nerves which directly correlated to energy. SO, back when she was green, I'd take her out and let her run away from home. We'd go out for hours and she would be happy to plod home. Again, as time progressed and she became more confident on the trails, we could have rides that were all walking and no running. But, at first, we did some walking, mostly trotting, and some long stretches of cantering. [somewhere in this transition phase, I also started using a pelham when we went out on the trails - I just kept the curb rein handy "just in case" as my emergency brake, and rode on the snaffle rein. But, that way, I knew I could stop her if she got overly excited at any point]
 
#10 ·
Big day guys, we went on an honest-to-goodness solo ride today. It was a gorgeous, sunny day, it was just too good to pass up. We have a 45 minute trail loop that has some nice hills, some nice woods, and some easy turnaround spots, so I figured it was time to try.

I'm probably not young or hip enough to do the "selfie" thing, but I tried to snap one to show off the oh-so-sexy construction worker vest my husband thoughtfully bought me to protect us when on the road (we got a good laugh out of the "one size fits most" label on the package):

(Isabel has some Swat under her eyes to keep the bugs away)


It was a bit nerve-wracking in the beginning, we need to ride about 1/4 mile on the road to get to the trail. It's a twisty, country road and people don't tend to respect the speed limit or Horse Crossing signs. However, a very nice woman did see us and slow down plenty- problem was, she slowed down to a creep and wouldn't pass us at all, which was freaking me out. So, I asked Izzy for a trot, she moved forward smartly and I was able to "park" on the shoulder of the road for the lady to go by. Of course when we stopped about 200 feet from the barn driveway, Izzy thought about trying her whole spin-towards-home move, but we successfully got going forward again. I really focused on keeping her moving forward, riding along rather than sightseeing, and keeping her mind busy. At first she was a little gawky, but she settled right down, gave me a couple of nice big sighs, and was a very good girl!

I will probably look back at this in the future and think it was silly to feel so invigorated about walking a couple miles on an easy trail, but I have to say, I just really feel like we accomplished something! I honestly never knew if we would be able to ride like this, and it just feels so great! :lol:

Here we are "pulling into the driveway," safe and sound (though with a few more bug bites than either of us would like):


Tirrreeeddd old lady- you'd think she just did a long distance ride:



And yaaaawwwwnnnn (wish this was with a real camera instead of crappy cell phone):


Next step: Begin to build in some trotting and cantering in some of the nice open stretches on the trail.
 
#11 ·
Interesting ride Friday afternoon. Some really good things happened, but I think maybe I pushed a little too hard in some respects.

Started off by riding out with two people and horses I don't typically ride with. One of the other women joked, "if you could pick three horses at this barn most likely to kill each other on a trail ride, it would be these three." Everyone was perfectly behaved though, and interestingly, Isabel got the spot at the back of the line, and actually did well there. No crazy pulling/rushing, she generally stayed a respectful difference from the horse in front of her unlike the last time we went out with a group. That was definitely positive. The other two were just using the trail ride to cool out their horses from jumping, but for me it was a warm up. I didn't think I could ride away from the group and keep going on the trail, so I went back to the arena with the others, did a little w/t/c in the ring alone, and then decided to ride back out to a different trail alone.

This is where maybe I pushed my luck a little, by going back to the barn and riding out a second time?

OK, so we ride to a different trail, and I decide today will be the day I try trotting away from the barn. There is a nice, long stretch of open field, so we trot off, she's a little bit of a "drunken sailor" and we're not necessarily going straight. Across the hay field, there's an old sand outdoor riding ring, so I decide that's where I'll continue asking for a little trotting. This is where she starts to have a bit of a meltdown. I ask her to keep trotting, simple figure 8s and serpentines, and she's feeling a bit on the verge of out of control. First of all, she has herself completely washed out and drenched in sweat. Whenever we turn through a corner and are trotting in the direction of home, she is going at super speed, these awful short little choppy strides. When we turn back away from home, she is a little more controllable and relaxes a tiny bit, which I try to reward with a little more give to the reins and deep breaths. But it's not a huge outdoor arena, so for every 10 calm-ish strides, we're turning a corner again and she gets frantic again. I really, really wanted just one simple lap of the ring with a completely calm trot, and we were probably out there for 15 or 20 minutes trying for it. It was starting to feel really counterproductive because she was just not getting any calmer, so I asked her to walk and walked away from the ring continuing along the trail. That seemed to give her a bit of a mental break, she did calm a bit. At that point, when she was calmer, we turned around and walked home. I don't know if this was the right decision (did it just make her think that being all worked up was the ticket out of trotting?) but we'll try again.

Yesterday we took it easy, just a quick ride in the arena. I'm meeting someone to ride together this afternoon, and that should be fun- we're going to try a new trail extension.

Here are a few pictures. I finally couldn't stand her scraggly mane anymore, so I bit the bullet and "pulled" it- "pulled" in quotes because I'm horribly impatient and don't show and just can't stand taking the time to really pull it. So as you can probably tell, this was a scissor job, but even so, I think it looks a ton better. And look at all the mane that actually came off!! It grows super-fast, so I'm sure by the end of the summer it will be long again...

Before:


After:


 
#12 ·
Just a quick addendum from today-we found a great trail connection and ended up being able to ride on nice dirt roads around the perimeter of several large corn fields. Isabel got to be the leader (actually made her quite pokey at first being out there in front) and barely batted an eye when a bunch of deer ran out in front of her and a big mama turkey and her 6 poults flew out of te corn into a tree. All this while a big thunderstorm was blowing in so the wind was picking up. She really doesn't seem spooky about stuff at all, which is only giving ME confidence (very clear that I'm the problem here!). Couldn't be happier with our ride today :)
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#13 ·
Another great solo ride this morning! We covered most of the territory we did on Sunday at the trot, which cut the time basically in half. It was so nice to let her move out a bit, she seemed to like it too.

She's so darn smart though...I wanted to see if one of the new roads we just found this weekend went any farther in a different direction- we've only ridden on this particular loop once, but when I "missed" the turn to head home and went a different way, she obviously knew it was not the way home and looked around over her shoulder like "hey lady, do I need to get us back to safety or are you paying attention to where we are?"- and was none too happy when I made her keep going in the "wrong" direction before turning back.
 
#14 ·
Such a great ride yesterday! I really do think that with every ride, she's getting even better at taking in all the sights and sounds outside (or, I am :)) Mounted up outside just as the septic truck was pulling in to the barn, making a ton of noise as they started pumping. She really didn't care at all.

Had a bit of a dicey moment crossing the road to get to the hay field, but we made it. I asked her to trot out right away, and she was a little resistant at first. Typically I do warm up briefly in the ring before we go, but it was being used yesterday so I figured I'd just head out. Maybe she needs a little more warming up before being asked to trot on.

The best part of the ride though was that I finally got the nerve to ask her to canter- and she was amazing. There is a really nice clearing between one of the wooded trails and a road, slightly uphill but a nice long stretch, and I decided it was time to just go for it- and it was wonderful. I felt like a rider having my first canter, it was just such an invigorating feeling. And her canter was so much nicer outside, really smooth and powerful, not the sort of half-hearted stutter step she's giving me inside. I know it sounds cheezy, but it just really feels like this is what riding should be like!

Good girl get a few nibbles of grass in the shade after her bath:
 
#15 ·
The best part of the ride though was that I finally got the nerve to ask her to canter- and she was amazing. There is a really nice clearing between one of the wooded trails and a road, slightly uphill but a nice long stretch, and I decided it was time to just go for it- and it was wonderful. I felt like a rider having my first canter, it was just such an invigorating feeling. And her canter was so much nicer outside, really smooth and powerful, not the sort of half-hearted stutter step she's giving me inside. I know it sounds cheezy, but it just really feels like this is what riding should be like!

1. YAY!! Congrats!!

2. I totally, totally, get that!! I feel the same way! There's nothing better than a good canter or gallop when you're trail riding.
I'm jealous that you have indoor stuff AND lots of trails...can I move in with you? :lol:
 
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#18 ·
Picture perfect day to ride yesterday. Beautiful blue skies:


We rode around the corns fields, and I figured out that there are actually 3-4 huge adjoining fields, all with a nice dirt track around them, so we went exploring a little farther than I expected, but she did great:


It was the perfect space for going for a nice, long canter, and we actually even hit a hand gallop for a minute- who knew the old lady could even move that fast?! I probably shouldn't have let her do it, as I didn't really ask her to, and I don't want to instill any "runaway horsie" thoughts in her head. But to be honest, it was just really fun, so I let her go for a bit before reining her back in :oops:

She's really getting to the point where you can just point her anywhere and she's happy to go, even if she hasn't been that way before. We rode off on a deer path coming out of one of the fields, and pretty soon we were in the middle of a meadow with grass up above my waist. She really didn't care at all.

It is clear to me though that I need to use our arena time to work on downward transitions. She gets really eager, particularly at the trot, and I feel like I'm just hauling on her face to get her to come down a gait. She's not super responsive off your seat to begin with, so I feel like when she's a bit amped up, I could be the heaviest, limpest sack of potatoes on her back and it wouldn't really matter to her. So I need to work on that.

I have a question for all of you who are more experienced than me- talk to me about "surefootedness." I have always assumed that in dicey spots on the trail, you sort of give the horse her head and let her find the best way through. Obviously staying balanced in the saddle and not getting in the way, but at the end of the day, it seems like it's her responsibility to keep us standing, right? (As an aside, at 35 years old, I've never learned to ride a bike, and my friends are always incredulous about this given they know I ride horses. In my opinion, a horse and I share a mutual desire to stay upright, something a bike's not going to do for me!!) We have a couple of places through the woods where we really have to scramble through some pretty thick mud, with tons of rocks, on an incline. It seems like Izzy is really clumsy and just sort of stumbles and trips her way through (she has grabbed her front right heel bulb at least once on the way through)- and it sometimes seems like she's going exactly the wrong way, finding every big slippery rock she can step on, rather than going around them. I don't know if this just takes practice, or if there's something I should be doing to help her pick the best path through?

 
#19 ·
I really can't speak about sure footedness, as I have only ever ridden on trails through those silly companies.

But! I did want to, again, congratulate you on how well she is coming along! That, and these between the ear pictures are my favorite <3

I'm sure it says on the first page, but what are your long term goals? Are you planning to do anything competitive?
 
#20 ·
Thanks, Zexious! My biggest goal in all of this was really just to gain the confidence to ride off the property alone, and I think I've managed to accomplish that!

As a longer-term personal goal, I think some day I'd really enjoy trying some long distance rides, but I'm not sure if this is the horse that's built to do that. Also, I don't have a trailer or any friends who are in to long distance rides, so it's hard to imagine when that will become a reality, but it's just something that sounds really appealing to me one day. For now, "happy hacking" seems like it will be perfect for both of us.
 
#21 ·
It's funny, but I feel like all this solo exploring is actually changing Isabel's demeanor. I'm not really one who thinks a lot about having a "bond" with my horse, but I do want her to be respectful and follow directions. In a way I can't quite explain, she seems much more interested in me these days. Yesterday I went out to the field to grab her for a ride, and she saw me at the gate and came running from the far end of the pasture to meet me, eyes fixed on me the whole way. For the first few months I knew this horse, I had to chase her around the field to catch her (a.n.n.o.y.i.n.g). We've long been over that problem, but she's never been the kind of horse that meets me at the gate. It was sort of sweet, I have to admit, even though that sounds a little mushy. :oops:

I also feel like she's a lot more responsive undersaddle. Turns are much more precise, she's a lot "handier" in that I can get her to go through spaces that I wouldn't have attempted before, and she just generally seems to be more focused on me (i.e., ear flicked back waiting to see what we do next). I rode in the arena last night because I wanted to focus on downward transitions, and for awhile had her trotting on a completely loose rein and was actually getting her to listen to my seat well enough she would come back to a walk easily. This sounds like a small thing, but it's really not something I've been able to do with her (she is definitely NOT the kind of horse where you just think about stopping, and she stops). This wasn't as successful after we cantered a bit, which I expected. She gets pretty hyped up after cantering and trotting after that tends to be a little fast and choppy (something else to work on). But it's good to know there are a couple of obvious things to work on.

I don't know how else to explain it, just feels like we're working together in a different way all of a sudden. It's really cool!
 
#23 ·
OK, all that sentimental stuff I wrote up there ^^^ you can disregard that!

So with all the good rides I've been having, we were clearly due to have a bad one. Yesterday was sort of a perfect storm set-up for having a bad day. We have single-gender turnout where I board, but the pasture set-up recently changed and this week, the girls and boys now share a fenceline in the larger pasture, which has been split in half. So Isabel is now in raging heat, and consequently hugely herdbound and obsessed with one little pony gelding. It was also a really hot day yesterday and the bugs were terrible. All in all, by the time I tacked up and mounted, I was getting on one irritated horse who was not interested in going for a ride.

We rode out of the ring as one of the suddenly irresistible geldings was coming in, which she did not appreciate. We had a little argument about crossing the street, and she was trying to be evasive and spin around towards home for the first 15 minutes of the ride. We got to our next road crossing, and had to stand and wait for a minute as 3-4 cars went by. At this point, she pretty much had a temper tantrum- apparently having to stand and wait is the greatest indignation a horse can experience! When the cars passed and I asked her to walk forward, she threw her head up and down and did a spin so we were facing the other way. I think she actually surprised herself though, because she spun and then just stopped stock still (I used to be a teacher, and I have to admit, her reaction to her naughtiness kind of made me chuckle in the same way that you would laugh when an adorable student would misbehave in a totally innocent way). So anyway, after this little tantrum, I got after her, we crossed the street, she fretted and jigged a little bit. Then suddenly she decided that everything in the corn field (the same we've ridden in a dozen times in the past few weeks) was going to eat her. She was shying away from the corn stalks, snorting and blowing, just acting ridiculous. But I just kept riding her forward, and eventually we managed to ride at a reasonable walk for the rest of ride, even being able to give her a loose rein for the last couple of minutes as we headed back to the barn. She was completely drenched in sweat by the time we got back- I guess a combo of a 90 degree day and this ridiculous behavior. It took a really long time to cool her out.

It's funny how these blowups happen when you're least expecting it- it was so hot yesterday I went out to the barn intending to have a leisurely, walk-only ride and just enjoy the scenery. Obviously Isabel had other ideas!
 
#25 ·
Ha! Wallaby, you are right- I suppose staying on is something. :)

I was actually thinking about a post you made earlier, about how Lacey didn't like you just being a passenger and wanted you really plugged in to riding. I got on in the mindset of just having a lazy ride, and I think my lackadaisical riding from the beginning set me up for the attitude I got from Izzy. Oh well, no riding tonight as I had to do a volunteer training for our therapeutic riding program, but I gave my lovely lady a pat on the nose while she was eating her dinner and left it at that.
 
#26 ·
OK, back on track today. Izzy is still in disgusting raging heat but she was over the worst of the herdboundness and rode out without too much trouble. I rode her much more aggressively. We warmed up w/t/c in the ring, and then when we headed out, we immediately trotted right on. I rode the loop with more hills today, and she seemed to enjoy trotting/cantering up the hills and across the fields. The weather was nice and cool, but the flies were the worst I've seen them. At one point, I looked down and she had a swarm of them all over her head and neck. Poor girl.

One funny moment- she was swatting at the flies nonstop with her tail, and with one swat, she actually broke a dead branch off a tree and it got caught in her tail. So she's dragging this 3-4 foot long branch, the thickness of a dressage whip, behind her for a good 10-15 minutes. Good girl though, she didn't bat an eye. I was having these mini nightmares of her thinking something was chasing her and spooking wildly, but once it was clear she was going to ignore it, I just left it until it dropped out (there's really nowhere on the trail that I could comfortably remount unless it was really an emergency. Unless I really have to, I would much prefer to avoid mounting her from the ground, given her somewhat weak back and me really being at the top of her weight limit). So, another "test" on the trail that she seems to have passed with flying colors.

Not sure if it was all the cantering uphill, but this is the first day I can remember when she was not pulling and rushing to get home. I was able to give her a pretty loose rein and she walked calmly the whole way, despite the awful bugs. Good girl!!

Also, someone over in the trail riding section recommended an iPhone app called "viewranger," so I tried that today. I'm still figuring it out, but it was pretty cool from what I could see. We rode about 3km, and traveled at a top speed of 15 km/hr. Not quite Kentucky Derby time, but still just so neat to see our zigzagging route through the woods and fields, and roughly how fast we were going at different parts of it. I would definitely recommend it if you're looking for a way to track where you're going.
 
#28 ·
So Isabel got an impromptu day off today- I got to the barn this morning, and they let me know she had not been turned out as they found her this morning with her eye swollen shut and streaming tears. It looked much better by the time I got there, but was still irritated. As far as I can see, looks like she may have a tiny scratch on the lens. She's had this problem before- I think her eyes are easily irritated to begin with, they get itchy so she rubs, and actually causes a bigger problem. Meeting the vet this afternoon to take a look and see if we're back to eye medicine, which is never fun with Isabel.
 
#29 ·
Didn't ride much at all last week. Isabel did something to irritate her eye in the middle of the week, so the time I would have had to ride during the week was taken up with meeting the vet and doing eye ointment. She ended up being fine, but this is the second time she's had this same issue. The barn assistant finds her in the morning with her eye basically swollen shut, tears streaming down her face. It has a slightly cloudy look in the middle. As the day goes on, the swelling goes down and she goes back to normal. The vet was great, came right out as he doesn't like to mess with eyes, she did get a course of ointment that day, but by day 2, it was totally back to normal. Not sure what she does, but I think she just gets itchy/irritated this time of year, and then starts rubbing, which makes it worse.

We also went away this weekend, spending Saturday at Saratoga watching the races. Here are a few fun pictures:

Palace Malice, last year's Belmont winner and potentially this year's Horse of the Year (though he didn't run well in the Whitney on Saturday):


Will Take Charge, last year's Breeder's Cup Classic runner-up- you can sort of tell in this picture, but this colt is a GIANT. Much more impressive in person:


A little starstruck standing next to trainer Graham Motion after he emerged from the winner's circle with a promising two-year old colt. The interview was all about whether or not he thought this colt will be a Breeder's Cup winner.


Stretch run:


Trackside with my lovely husband (who trounced me in our betting competition):


Got home Sunday, the weather was gorgeous and I finally had time for a ride. Isabel was super stiff when we warmed up in the ring- almost to the point where I felt like she was a little off somewhere on the front end. I just spent a lot of time slowly warming up, and she seemed to work out of it. We spent most of our trail ride just walking on a loose rein. This is the first time I've really trusted her enough to just let her walk along and pick her way, and she responded really well- I could really feel the tension leave and she put her head down and seemed to carry herself a lot more nicely than she was warming up. When we got back to the ring, I had her t/c on the same loose rein for a bit, which was also unusual for her. She's fairly unbalanced at the canter (particularly after a week off) and she did reasonably well without me holding her together.

Snapped a ton of pictures yesterday since she was being so easygoing about everything.

One of my favorites:


Love this one too:




Ever since I pulled her mane, it's been so "bouncy" when she moves:
 
#30 ·
I was out of town for most of last week, in Seattle for work. So, had a bit of a break from riding. But, I agreed to let Isabel be used in the Advanced Beginners summer camp at the barn, so she did get used a little bit while I was gone. The instructors reported she was VERY lazy for the girl that was working with her during the week. Looks like she made a new friend though:


I got to ride Saturday, and I could definitely tell she had been packing a kid around all week when she tried some silly stuff like pulling towards the gate and ducking out on me when I asked her to canter across the hay field. Quickly got it sorted out though, after a minute she took a deep breath and just seemed to say, "oh, you're back, huh?" :wink:

After a couple of weeks without a lot of riding, it was almost like she was being introduced to the trails again. I took her on one of our regular routes, and she was a little wide-eyed and snorty, like she was when we first start riding out there. So, we worked on just staying calm and listening, and then I let her have a good long canter around one of the corn fields, which seemed to let her blow off some of that nervous energy.

Fun ride yesterday. My husband is a runner, and he will often run from town to meet me out at the barn and then ride home with me. He must have been in sprinter mode yesterday, because I was just finishing tacking up when he showed up at the barn. So, I decided to ride our little 3-mile loop, and he came for the walk with us. It was fun to have someone to talk to while riding, but bonus was that we had a photographer along with us!



Not sure why I have such a weird look on my face here, but it shows a bit of our pretty forest trail, and I think Izzy looks cute:


Being impatient standing for the camera:


Still not really thrilled about standing still:


She really HATES to be asked to just stand out on the trail. She definitely interprets that to mean she should try to drag me around in whatever direction leads towards home. Need to keep working on that.
 
#31 ·
I had planned on yesterday being an arena day- really wanted to work on her gaits and balance. However, I showed up, and the hay guy was there with a massive trailer and a couple hundred bales to deliver, and they have to use the arena to access the hay loft. Soooo....that plan went out the window.

Instead, I decided to take her to the farmer's field across the street and work on some of her patience issues. We just walked. When she got fast, we stopped. She got ******. She pawed the ground like a circus pony. She tried swinging her haunches around. She snorted. In hindsight, it is funny to see how hard this was for her. In the moment, it was annoying. We just walked around for 30 minutes or so, until she finally offered a calm, evenly paced walk. Then we went home. That was about it.
 
#33 ·
Instead, I decided to take her to the farmer's field across the street and work on some of her patience issues. We just walked. When she got fast, we stopped. She got ******. She pawed the ground like a circus pony. She tried swinging her haunches around. She snorted. In hindsight, it is funny to see how hard this was for her. In the moment, it was annoying. We just walked around for 30 minutes or so, until she finally offered a calm, evenly paced walk. Then we went home. That was about it.
Been there, done that with my morgan mare...and will probably be dealing with this in the future. Good for you that you stuck it out until she was able to relax.
 
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