Trails, Teeth and Time Under Saddle

What a week! We have covered a lot of ground and Oliver is coming along just as expected. Our focus centered on exposure to some real-world scenarios and then moving forward with the riding work we started the weeks before.

On Friday, Sean took Bryce and I (and Boone and Oliver) up to Longmont to expose the horses to a trail context and all the things they might meet traveling off property: bikes, runners, strollers, etc. Sean chose the Boulder Fairgrounds, which is close to where Sean used to live and train horses, so he knows the area well. It was a perfect place to explore and to see how the mustangs responded to new and unfamiliar things.

Getting both horses in the trailer was actually pretty uneventful. Boone walked on first and clearly he recalled all the practice they have done preparing for and actually loading. I led Ollie on and he simply followed. It was his second trailer ride ever, the first being his 7-hour ride down here two months ago from South Dakota.

Once at the fairgrounds, we unloaded the horses and started off on the trail. We immediately met other pedestrians and folks on bikes. While interested, both horses continued on with little change in demeanor. Our first “obstacle” was walking under one of the pergolas and through some picnic tables. Boone didn’t blink and Oliver followed suit. We all laughed a few times, perhaps a little relieved, but also an acknowledgment of how the work we have done thus far has paid off.

Photo credit: Sean Davies

Down the trail a mile or so there is a waterfall and we took the opportunity to bring the horses to the river to see if we could get them to get their feet in. This took some convincing for both geldings. Though Oliver has been great with the tarp and walking through puddles on at the ranch, he balked a little at the running water and it took about 10 minutes to convince him to go in. Once in, though, he loved it. He drank from the river and splashed a little, eventually getting all 4 feet in. Boone essentially did the same.

Photo credit: Sean Davies

We moved on over some bridges and while both horses definitely noticed the first steps onto the bridges, they moved across each one, definitely aware that they were in a new context, but confident. Bicylists passed by, some of whom dismounted, but others didn’t and again the horses were aware but very brave. On our way back to the trailer, we walked down a steeper slope to the water’s edge, which Oliver wasn’t so sure of, but with a little literal prodding (there were sticks in abundance) he leaped down and then back up the bank. A jumper in the making.

I think the walk physically tired us humans out more than the horses, but they were clearly a little mentally worn out when they again loaded in the trailer to head home. It was a great success on all fronts and I think I can speak for Bryce and myself in saying that we feel confident in the trail potential in both Boone and Oliver. They rocked it.

One of my takeaways from the walk was that Oliver is still very pushy and he is learning to move off from pressure, rather than into it. So, the next day when I came down to work on groundwork (which we did outside), my focus was giving him clearer messages in the hopes to increase his sensitivity. He is moving out at the canter better now, especially when I am better positioned, and so I focused on lots of changes of direction. He got away from me once, mainly because I was positioned poorly when asking him to move out and he was headed straight away from me faster than I could pull his head around. Thankfully, Sean was riding in the next ring over and was able to help me catch him. I was able to get him moving again without drama and once we were done working on transitions, Sean demonstrated some exercises to use outside to keep Oliver’s focus. We also worked on leg yields (from the ground) and I was able to get a better handle on how to work with Oliver on moving away from pressure properly in this context.

We were back in the saddle for our next two sessions. I did some groundwork with Oliver in the first one and Sean did a quick ride (Oliver was still super tired!) basically working on walk-trot transitions and taking direction moving around barrels, etc. Today, Sean rode first and got our first canter steps (to the left and right) with Oliver while being ridden. We are taking this skill VERY slowly because Oliver’s balance is still developing and even without a rider he struggles to get the correct lead in the front and back. What ensues can be a bit of a panic on his part and while this is fine for groundwork, it could get messy with a rider. I stood in the middle of the round pen to help move things along and we were able together to get Oliver to transition relatively calmly into the canter for about half a circle and then settle him back into a trot, walk and whoa (and of course some work on the back up at the end).

I rode Oliver today for the longest I have thus far. It wasn’t anything fancy: we walked at the walk in the arena, moving around barrel and basically practicing moving forward and taking direction. It took me a few minutes to settle in and I am admittedly not precise with my signals, but they are coming along. I was able to figure out (with gently shared guidance--ha!) how best to hold and move the reins (my tendency is to pull out instead of up) and how to better use my leg and seat to move him forward. He is still hesitant, but he relaxed a little and the better I got at giving cues, the more his responses improved. Rocket science, I know.

My hope today was to get to the point where I feel comfortable riding Oliver alone to keep up the work Sean and I are doing together during training sessions and I think I’m there. We will have to see how this plays out when I have the opportunity, but I am really excited to have the emerging confidence required. We have basically settled on the fact that because of Oliver’s age, he will be ridden lightly for the next few years, if only to give his body a chance to grow and to develop balance. Thus, my role for a while is going to continue to include a lot of groundwork and as much riding as Ollie can physically handle. We are in it for the long haul with this one and want him to be healthy and sound for years to come.

Our focus this coming week, I think, will be to continue to build on what we have worked on so far with Ollie under saddle: transitions, moving off of the rider’s cues, the back up and doing all these things both inside and in the outdoor arena, but we will see what Sean has in store for us both. I am also going to try to find some way to preserve Ollie’s last front lower baby tooth, which I gently (read persistently) wiggled free from his mouth this week because I could no longer take his snaggle-toothed smile.

Overcoming Obstacles

It’s funny, this past week I wasn’t sure I had much to write about and as such let some time pass. Thankfully, Courtney (whose horses Solas and Samwise are also a Spirit Heart) has also started a blog about her experience with equine assisted counseling (so cool!) and in reading her first post I was inspired to get back to the routine. Now that I am sitting down to reflect I realize we have a bunch to catch up on. In the interest of time, I will try to cover the most pertinent milestones, starting Oliver’s first proper hoof trim and ending with today’s ride with Sean, which was, you will likely agree, quite a feat considering it was really Ollie’s 2nd real ride.

They say scars tell stories and if this is the case then Oliver’s feet tell some tales. It is clear that he has had a few abscesses in the past which are, thankfully, growing out nicely. The fields on which he likely spent the last year or so surely had some rocks, but probably not the type of gravel necessary for him to wear his feet down properly. As a result, his feet have grown out a little unevenly and it was high time we (and by “we” I refer to myself as the observer) did something about it. So last week, instead of doing groundwork one session, Sean offered to do his first trim. While he didn’t stand perfectly still, Oliver was really patient and more than anything he seemed to want to investigate both Sean’s hat and the shiny silver coins on Sean’s belt. Oliver walked away from the experience with feet that are not only much more even, but also much easier to pick out and clean. A win-win for both of us.

Ollie and I worked a lot on our own this week due to weather and a nasty cold that took Sean out of commision for a few days. This was a great opportunity for us to fine-tune some skills, most notably me getting Oliver to move his shoulder out when I am working with him in the round pen (especially when he is going to the right), sharpening up transitions, helping Oliver to find his stride at the canter (and to pick up the correct lead in front and back) and also moving over jumps and over obstacles. We also worked twice with the surcingle.

Our most notable progress was with jumping and obstacles. As I have noted before, Oliver is not the most graceful. This is best observed when he walks over or around (read: through) things. We worked on jumping barrels twice this past week and after I figured out how to better position myself and thus communicate more clearly with Oliver he did a really great job getting himself over, instead of through, the barrels--in both directions. Not only did he improve his form, he also “got” what I was asking him to do and by the end of our last session he would seek out the barrels once he got moving and trotted towards the center of them with very few cues from me.

Ollie also took great pride in his bridge crossing abilities. He has had no trouble following me over the bridge for a while and I have also been able to drive him over it, but now once he has crossed it a few times, he seeks out the opening on his own and, just as with the barrels, seeks out the route. He was excited about this and when we came back for the third time to work on the bridge he trotted right up and over. This came in really handy when Sean rode him today; it was clear Oliver knew how to do the bridge thing and thus carrying Sean over it seemed simply an added detail.

Yesterday, after we worked on obstacles, I had the privilege also of watching Boone and Bryce have their first rides. I say plural because it was a first for both of them--Bryce had never taken a first ride on a horse and Boone had not yet been ridden. As I always say, it is really informative for me to watch Sean, Boone and Bryce together--I can learn not only from their progress, but also from the contrast between how Boone and Oliver learn and behave. They are quite different horses, yet they both progress well with similar approaches. The most striking difference (aside from their ages) is sensitivity. Boone is not only highly aware of everything going on around him, he is quick to respond to cues; on the other hand, Oliver is a little less keyed in, requiring cues to keep his attention and he is also sometimes a bit lagging in the response department. In other words, he is a two-year-old. While Boone’s first ride is not really my story to tell, I was honored to have been there and watching the two of them work through it together is something I will not soon forget.

Today, we were lucky to get some time with Sean and after a quick warm up, Oliver had his third real ride. I am combining Sean and my rides on him during saddle testing as his official second. For his third ride, Sean decided we would work on obstacles out in the arena. This worked beautifully because of the practice we had this week and while I thought it was ambitious (I think I said at one point “And this is what confidence looks like.”) Oliver handled a lot of new things beautifully.

Instead of riding him in a halter, Oliver had his second experience with bosul. While it allowed Sean control, Oliver did resist a little, but overall he responded. Sean also wore spurs, which were definitely needed. If anything, Oliver needs a great deal of encouragement at first to move forward. This gave me the opportunity to assist, cueing Ollie from the ground as needed to get him moving forward. Once he understands and opens up to the idea he is fine, but getting started seems more of a sputtering than a peeling out for lack of a better comparison. They only really needed my help for a few minutes at the beginning. 

As I said, once moving under saddle, Oliver handled all the obstacles really well. He clearly knew what was expected and took Sean over the tarp river, bridge and cavelleti like a pro. He also did well moving around the barrels we had set out, though that wasn’t as clear to him at first (we haven’t done too much work using barrel patterns, but now will do more). Sean was able to walk him around the full arena and even to do a few steps backing up at the end. Tomorrow, we will pick up where we left off and my hope is to get on to try some of what I watched today...I guess I should find myself a pair of spurs.