Trail Ride Series

This week was a series of excellent trail rides.

First on Monday we went to Fox Hollow. Logging roads, mostly up hill one way, turn around and back down. He was excited but very good. I was riding with Larz who has a pretty big walk, so it was a little hard to keep up. I had the friend riding with me, circle so he didn't always feel that he had to keep up...

Loved the puddles. Didn't love going up hill, but he made it. A little rushy down hill at first, but he settled and it was again better having Larz behind us. Super day. No spooks, fantastic in the trailer. Great Ride

Top of the hill for this ride, yes breeching, got some down hill home...

Good Boy, you didn't roll in that puddle!

Tuesday we met at the Hopes and found a saddle that fit. 8" minimum gullet width for him! Then we went over to Bristow with one of Matt horses in the trailer. Again a very super ride. He had one in place jump at a jay flitting in the trees, but that was it. LOVED the river, would have just kept going! He got a little worried when the horse in front got too far ahead, but not like he wanted to rush as there was a horse behind.

Thursday we went in our local woods. Still a little wet, but pretty nice. Today was mostly about not rushing downhill. So I made him walk back up and the other horses waited at the bottom, several times, he got the picture and sat back and went slow. I am sure it is a lesson that will need repeating, however, it was nice that he did show he got it.

He got good and sweaty today and had a nice bath, which he does like!

Windy Ride

Nice day for a windy ride. Good for funny things moving when you least expect it! Archie was a champ, just one time he thought maybe something was in the woods, but it was just a step and a turn to look. It was just in the arena again, but with 3 students. Sorry no pictures.

We worked on the trot transition. He doesn't need to GO in the arena, which is not really the case when he is outside, but it is a good place to know these things. He also isn't great about going straight, nothing to follow, like a trail,  so it is about his responsibility to go where he is pointed. It is important as maybe the trail is wide open and we don't want to keep telling him which way to go!

He then had to stand tied for about 25 min while the Chiro worked on Dazzle. He was wiggly and pawing a bit, but soon realized there wasn't much else to do and stood and napped.

Tomorrow's weather looks pretty wet! If there is a break we may have an afternoon ride!

Noodle Play 2

So...noodle and ball play again today and I would say it was 75% better than the first time. This is good news, he isn't so stuck in the things bothering him that he can't get over it! Yeah!

Playing in the arena right now is good as outside the arena is just too slippery. I don't want him to be worried about his footing as well as the things I am exposing him to. So I starting in today with the noodle necklace and drag.

Sorry about the quality, it was with my phone, which is pretty poor. Oh well, you get the idea. Adding more each day! This was after about 10 minutes of trotting sideways and stopping and going and stopping, then he finally dropped his head and blew and accepted the fact that they weren't going away and that they weren't hurting him.

I let him rest a few minutes and then we got this nice walk. The stop could be improved, but he stops wonderful under saddle, so not too worried about that.

On to the ball. He got it today.He realized he could push this thing! Kick it too! The only thing he didn't like about the ball was when it rolled to him, especially on the right side. He even got ok with that.

I wasn't planning on riding, but I decided it would be fun to see if he would push the ball with me on. So I tied up reins on the halter and climbed on bareback! Comfy! Not sure he has been ridden bareback before, so i played friendly game with my dangling legs and he was fine, so I proceeded! He was great! He pushed the ball all around and we even got it back to it's resting corner! He was  little miffed at what the halter meant, but he got it. We trotted a bit and when I was done I was COVERED in hair!

Still Tender

Gave Archie another day off as his neck is better and he was playing, but it is tender to the touch at the injection site. I think he will be up and running tomorrow. I have lots of time tomorrow through the weekend in between the raindrops to play with stuff here. Then we have a ride at Fox Hollow planned for Monday Morning.

Stay tuned!

PS> I did notice today as the kids pulled out the ball to play in the arena, he took off running up the hill...That is the reaction we want to change! 

Shots

I was thinking of riding Archie up the road with the kids today, as they still wanted to ride in the rain. However, Archie's neck is stiff from the shots today. When I brought him in to his stall he stood there and pawed at his hay, he couldn't put his head down to eat! Pour baby, I don't see any reaction at the site, but will check again in the am. I put his hay in a hay net for him...He is eating fine!

Between the Rain Squals

I found a moment between the rain drops to do a bit of desensitizing today with Archie.  I have  videos of the noodle and ball play, but I do not seem to be able to upload it here or on you tube...technology....humf.

On the way down to the arena I pulled down the loose branch that I've seen hanging since the ice storm. We pulled that down to the arena to start our session. 


Our main dragging toy today was pool noodles. I strung a rope down the middle so I could drag it and then I put two on the rope and he wore them.  Sure doesn't like things dragging on the ground though. He took some time to finally blow and lick his lips. As we took breaks from the torture, I was working on releasing his neck and jaw. He really likes that!

Good stuff, he wants to play with that ball, just doesn't really know how. He wasn't too happy with the ball at first, but in the end he let it up on his back and even dropped of the other side.

He sure knows how to play with Felix, body slams and all! Way too much fun to watch. I tried to get that on film today too, but the other horses kept walking in front of the camera! Oh I got a little bit, but none of the big play.

100 Acre Woods, but no Pooh

Really nice first trail ride. We opened a gate, jumped, bushwacked, walk, trot, cantered, backed up the hill, went mud skiing (not as dry as I thought it would be) and NO Spookies!

He was wiggly and busy, but pretty much paying attention. The dogs were up and back and around, He did want to pick Woobie up by the scruff at one point. I would say the thing we needed to  work on today was not rushing down hill. That is where the backing up hill came in. Whenever he decided to rush, I decided to stop and back up. It slowed him down, we only had to do that about 5 times.

He wasn't even too impolite about grass snacking. I did give him a few moments, but only when told he could. After all he had just climbed a pretty good size hill!

I tried my Fluidity saddle today (English) but I used the leather girth. I think I will go back to the neoprene girth on the Wintec, Just didn't want to make it tighter and we were rolling a bit, I even look kind of crooked in the picture.

As we pulled into my driveway I asked him to go a different way than Karmen, which did give him a bit of concern, but he could see her the whole way and she meet him at the top of the hill, so it was very successful.

Successful all the way around. Looking forward to more!

Short Hike

Before I ride Archie up the road to our trails I figured I would pony him up first to see if there were any hotspots. He was great and obviously has spent plenty of time on the pony line. He only had one moment and that was when the dog ran up from behind. not to chase us just to keep up. He had  a little bolt, but checked it pretty quick.

So now that I know him for this first week, I know where we are going. Lots of right eye work and stuff from behind! I am looking forward to our first trail ride either tomorrow or Tuesday depending on the help that is available. Not sure I want to go it alone!

Wish I could have gotten pictures today of him and Felix playing, they were a blast to watch. Full body slams and all the way up on hind legs. Felix is no match for his size, but he is quick and can get down and nip those front legs before Archie knows what got him! So cute. And really keeping Archie busy and working.

The Sea Float

Yesterday I thought was a good day for working on dragging the buoy. And I was right. I pretty much spent 45 minutes with it and confirmed my Right Eye is worse theory. Everytime it ended up on Archie's right side, he was 5x more reactive and managed to put it back on the left side.


It also could not get behind him. That just sent him running.

The horse eating bouy

So we just kept wandering around and the other horses chiming in here and there. I kept it with us up to the barn and hung it on the post, and will take it back down with us and continue that until he decides it isn't a problem.








Archie is doing fine with the herd. They chase him at feeding time, but he is pretty good at staying away, although he does have a few bites on his butt and back.

Happy Herd at Dinner

Braided Up

English Day for Archie

 I put the braids in so that I don't get caught up in all his hair! It is also nice for temperature regulation. Not that it was really hot today, but he still has a bunch of hair and gets hot pretty easy. 

 

Braids? Are you sure?

 

Oh Fine, just don't tell anyone.

What I liked about today was that the things he was worried about last time did not get the same reaction this time. A look, but not a step back or snort. Now we added a few other things, but that we will do every time. I took pool noodles down to the arena with me and even added a balloon to the end of one. My intention was to play with him all over with the ballooned noodle, but as I got going I thought that I really didn't want  the balloon to pop while right next to him. I may purposely have someone at the other end of the arena pop some, but not right next to him yet. I saw a nice obstacle once that was made of two boards with balloons attached all along set 4 or 5 feet apart to ride through. As we started getting comfy with that folks started walking over the balloons, which naturally got some of them popped!


Once we were riding we had our first 8 foot startle. Meaning he jumped about 8 feet sideways. The tape on the round pen, which is in the arena, wiggled in the breeze. Once he jumped, he stood and tried to figure out what scared him. Within a few minutes it was ok and off we went. I notice that he seems to spook more out of his right eye than left. Which just means we do more work on that side.

We also worked on our walk, trot, walk, halt, back up transitions. Halt is fabulous, back up ok, up to walk good, up to trot not so easy. Probably not a problem on a trail, but we want it to be good all around. He is so sensitive to touch, that just a light tap with the end of the reins got him awake. We want him to be nice and responsive to leg, so we don't want to desensitize that with simple transitions. He was moving forward nicely after a few minutes.